Don Sharp: Rise of the Suns
by Flappy741
Summary: Don had a pretty good life until that horse/chicken crashed into his life and started a new one. Quickly, Don arrives at CampHalfblood and leaves in less that 3 days. Apollo and Artemis has been captured by a giant, and it's Don's, Josh's, Vanessa's, Thaila's, and Phoebe's job to find them. All the while, Don realizes what being the 'chosen one' of the Fates mean. Try this! :D
1. Chapter 1:When Chickens Fly

**Hello! This will be my first FanFic., so any suggestions on what I should do with the story will be most appreciated! Most of R.R.'s characters won't be in the story, and later, you'll know why. Thank you!**

**I do not own anything of Rick Riordans**

Chapter 1: When Chickens Fly

Let me just start out saying this: I have the worst luck ever. I hade it made until the discovery of being a half-blood. I was living in a decent house with my mom and had a decent life until the chicken/horse whatever it was scared that life away. I should probably start there with my story…

I'm Don Sharp. I'm fourteen years old with a mini afro. I was born in Florida and lived there for three months, then moved to California. I had a… dangerous childhood. Once, as a birthday present when I was three, I got a toy snake. How I ended up with a snake with faces at the end of each side, I have no idea. Then years later, around eight years old, our neighbors moved in. But when I told everybody they had one eye instead of two, they didn't believe me. They moved out a year later, but it was scary when I heard them at night. When I told mom about the noises I heard a night, she said I was dreaming. I was usually very nervous of everything until I met my best friend, Josh Green.

My friend Josh and I met during sixth grade, about three years ago. We became buddies almost the moment we met, due to the fact that we were the only ones in the school we went to with ADHD. He was my age with brown, wavy hair and a "cute face" the girls say. He would look like someone you would expect to be in action movies doing dangerous stunts. I found this funny because he rarely gets injured, and when he does, it heals like twice as fast as mine. Plus, he plans to be a doctor when he grows up, and he was good at it, too. Heck, I once broke my leg playing basketball, and in five minutes, the pain went away like it never even happened.

So there we were, at a park relaxing. I was practicing archery (which I'm very good at, by the way), and Josh was sitting under a tree, reading a book on symptoms and diseases. I had a target set up about fifty meters away shooting arrows. A week ago, this was a challenge to me, but now, I was nailing a bull's eye with every shot. I was also listening to my iPod at the time. Usually, I do better with everything listening to my music: athletics, focusing, thinking, you name it. I can stand about pretty much anything except classical. Classical music will make me wish I was never born, so if I have a hate face while I'm at a retirement home, it's not that I hate old people.

Once I emptied my quiver for the fourth time, I went over to Josh and sat down with him. "So," I asked, "learning anything interesting?"

He traced his finger from where he was in his book to the page number, and then closed the book. "Useful stuff? Yes. Interesting stuff? No."

He stood up and stretched for a little bit while looking at the target. "Nice shooting."

"Nah, that was nothing," I said. If there was more space, it would have been a more beneficial practice."

We were alone at the park. It had about half a football field of grass with a basket ball court and a play ground. It was a nice, summer day, no clouds in the sky, birds chirping, and about ninety-four degrees. As Josh was doing his stretch, he turned and looked at me. "How can you stand wearing those?" he asked, and I looked down. I was wearing blue jeans with a yellow t-shirt with a black unzipped sweater. "I like what I'm wearing," I responded. "Is it a crime to wear these?"

"No, it's just you're wearing clothes that make you look like you're hot," he said.

"Oh, why thank you," I replied.

"No, that's not what I meant," Josh recovered. "I'll revise: aren't you getting dehydrated in that or anything? It's like a hundred degrees out here!"

"Ninety-four," I corrected, "and no, I'm not feeling fine."

"How would you know that, Mr. Thermometer?" he asked.

"Honestly, I don't know. To me, it's like I've been in every temperature there is and I know it somehow. Besides, why are you wearing those clothes for reading?"

He was wearing a classic Pac-man shirt with gym shorts. "I didn't pick these clothes just to read, but of the heat," he said.

"But…," I encouraged, doing a _go on _gesture with my hands.

He could've proved me wrong if he kept going, but he shook his head. "Fine, man. But when you do something weird, I'm going to remind you that heat makes you do crazy things and after that, you're on your own." he said at last, "but if you insist, point taken." He finished his stretching and looked the target again. "Are you done with your practice?" he asked.

"No," I replied as I got up. I jogged over to the target and plucked the arrows out of the target. I had twelve arrows. I would have had more, but my quiver didn't carry a lot. I would also sometimes have less because I would also use it to put other random stuff in it. I jogged back to were Josh was standing. When I got back, I saw Josh putting his book in his backpack. "Whoa," I said. "Are we going somewhere?"

"I'm just going to watch you for a bit," he replied. He zipped up the backpack and stood next to me.

I didn't mind. I wasn't a bragger or anything, but it did feel good to show someone my skills. I notched an arrow, aimed, and then let it rip. I wasn't suppressed when I got a bull's eye again for the forty-ninth time in a row. I turned my head to see Josh's face. There was no expression, like this wasn't a surprise to him.

"Sick," he admitted, "but it looks like that's already a piece of cake to you. Tried hitting a moving target?"

"What?" I asked as I took out one earplug just to make sure I heard him clearly, "are you going to hold up a target and go from left to right or something?"

He sighed and faced palmed. Then slid his hand down his face. _What will I do with this boy? _His face seemed to say. "No, I mean like a bird or something. What's the main point of knowing how to arch if you can't even hit a moving target?"

I thought about it, and it seemed like a good idea to me. I turned to the farthest tree were I saw it had a bird in it. I notched an arrow and aimed. Then I shouted "Hey!"

Multiple birds flew from the branches towards another tree on the opposite side of the grass field, but I only had my eye on one. Once I was sure I knew where it would go, I planned accordingly and shot. The bird must have seen it coming or had a lot of luck, because it swooped down just enough to avoid the arrow. The arrow whizzed past the bird, and hit another one, which apparently didn't see it coming and had no luck. A bird went down as the others flew to some trees on the other side of the field.

"Well," I said, "I hit _a _bird, but I didn't hit _the _bird. It was probably because I had my earplug hanging."

I grabbed my earplug and put them into my ear. Josh was looking around, until he looked up and pointed, saying, "hit that."

I looked up to see what he was pointing at. In the sky, way above and in front of us, was a silhouette of a huge bird. It looked like a vulture, but… oddly different. I notched another arrow and shot up. The arrow flew and hit the bird, from what seemed like the wing or the breast. First, it started to flap wildly, and then plummeted towards us.

As the bird dropped, it became clearer and was easier to make out. At first, I thought it was a very fat vulture who was somehow defying the law of gravity with its tiny wings. Then it looked more of a …horse. I turned to Josh to make sure if I was starring into the song too long, but his was telling me otherwise.

"Umm, run?" I asked nervously?

He nodded, and we bolted. The horse, vulture, crashed into the field and plowed right threw the dirt. It went twelve to fourteen meters, the stopped. Josh and I peeked over our cover- a bench at the time- and looked at the thing. From our view, all we can mostly see was dirt, but we can also see the things head. It was a horse's head. I got off from the bench and tip-toed closer to the thing. As we past the pile of dirt, we saw the thing better.

It was definitely a horse alright, but it had chicken and vulture parts. The front part of the body was all horse, but it had the hind legs and a tail of a chicken. To make it even look stranger, it had wings of a vulture. I was wondering if a scientist was doing an experiment with barn animals and went wrong when a vulture came in.

"Jeez," I told Josh, "you'd think they would do experiments in a laboratory where they wouldn't fly away."

He didn't hear me. Instead, he went up to it and touched it. It didn't move. It was clear the horse was knocked out. The arrow I shot it with was in its left wing straight threw, so I knew this thing wasn't going anywhere. I looked around the park again; making sure nobody was secretly putting this on YouTube.

Josh took out his phone and started dialing. "Who are you calling?" I asked.

"The pound. They ought to know what to do with it."

"Of course, they would obviously take a horse to a pound with dogs. They probably want to look like horses too, in their own way."

Josh kept ignoring me and kept calling until someone picked up.

"Hello? Yeah, I'd like to call about a horse… yeah, I guess you can say he's weird looking…"

I tuned out, looking around me again. I didn't know why, but I had a chill down my back. Nobody was still at the park.

I was getting a little creeped out, so I took out my phone and called mom. She told me only to call anytime if it was life and death. It wasn't exactly that, but I was sure she would let this one slide. The phone on the other side rung once or twice, but she picked up:"Hello?"

"Mom?" I asked, almost panic in my voice.

"Don?" she asked back with a worry tone. "What's wrong? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, o.k., listen. Can you pick Josh and I up from the park? We're getting kind of creeped out."

I looked around my surroundings once again with that same chill. Nothing changed, except two black dogs sniffing the air. They were pretty far off, but I could tell they smelled something. They probably smelled the horse with chicken in it. I motioned to Josh to start walking as he was on the phone away from the horse.

"Why, what's happened?" my mom asked. I could hear rustling in the back, so I could tell she was probably getting her keys.

"Well, uh, this is something you kind of have to see to believe," I replied. I turned around to look to see if the dogs were enjoying the free meal I have given them. Instead, they strolled completely past the horse. Their noses were to the ground were we were, and it came to me they were following _us. _I started to pick up the pace a little further. "O.k., thanks mom!" I said and hung up, without waiting for a reply. I turned to Josh just as he hung up.

"Readjust my glasses," he grumbled. "I don't even _have _any. I should have said close your windows." He put his phone in his pocket and turned towards me. "So mind telling my why we're almost jogging?"

I turned around to point to where I thought the dogs were at, but they were _way _closer. They were running now, and I got a better view of them when I saw them. First off, their tails were on fire. Second, they had like red Mohawks down the back side of their body, ending at their tail. Their teeth were vicious and sharp looking, just like their nails.

I didn't turn around to admire or pet the dogs. Instead, I bolted, and Josh did the same.

I ran as fast as I could, Josh a little faster than me. We turned a little bit and ran towards our stuff. Thankfully, out of habit, I was still caring my bow on me. I took an arrow and notched it, aiming at the closest dog near me. That was hard to tell, because they were both eight meters away. I shot my arrow. It hit one of the dogs in the leg and it tumbled. Then I ran like no tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the world didn't understand that wasn't a literal meaning. It leaped on me, nails digging into my back. I hit the ground, stomach first, so the air was knocked right out of me. Just when I was thinking my day couldn't get any worse, the world proved me wrong again. It drove its nails in my back a little more, and ripped across it. Pain exploded on my back, and I yelled for it. My jacket and shirt ripped of with the dogs claws.

Luckily, and the first I had any today, Josh came with his backpack and hit the dog off me. I didn't know what was my back was like, but my sight began to fade, so I knew it was bad. My vision was growing dimmer by the second, but I tried to hold on.

It stumbled back, growled irritated, and jumped towards Josh. He swung his backpack again and I heard a long CLANG as it hit the dogs head. The dog fell on his side fazed. Josh went up to it and started kicking it like you do to stuff in cartoons where stuff doesn't work, but the kick turns it on.

As he was knocking out the dog silly, I saw that the other dog started to get up. I did my best in as much pain as I was to alert Josh, but I could barely move at all. Then I saw my mom's car come up. She got out of the car with a… shiny knife.

But from there the pain was too much. My eyes rolled to the back of my head, and I passed out.

**Please review on what you think. Anything is appreciated. Thank you!—Flappy741**


	2. Chapter 2: My Mom Sends Me Away

**Hey guys! I'm trying to make my own version of the book **_**The Lightning Thief**_**, and if you guys have any ideas, please let me know. It means a lot to me.—Flappy741**

**I do not own anything of Rick Riordan's.**

Chapter 2: My Mom Sends Me Away

When I awoke, I was on a plane. It was dark outside the windows to where as I can see stars. I didn't know if I was dreaming or not, but a set of them strangely formed a girl with a bow running. I tried to focus better, but my head winced in pain. "Where…" I started, but stopped again. It hurt just to even move my mouth.

Then my mom made me feel very much better: she bear hugged me, squeezing the light out of me.

"Oh, Don!" she said as she hugged me. "Thank the gods you're ok! I was worried sick about you!"

_Ok is a mild way of putting it _I thought. But all I could say was "aaaahhhh!"

"Oh, sorry," she said and pulled back. I bent over to look around. On the plane, I was in between Josh next to the window and my mom on the end. Josh was quietly reading his symptoms book and looked up once he noticed me.

"Well, glad to see you didn't end up as a chew toy. How you feeling?"

"Like I'm laying on coals," I said quietly to not hurt myself.

"Josh, take out the ambrosia and nectar. Don, lean forward."

I leaned forward a little bit as Josh pulled out a baby bottle that seemed to have apple juice in it and what looked like brownies in a bag. He opened up the bag and gave me one. Once I ate it, the sensation was like holy work. In my mouth, I tasted an ice cream sandwich bar while the pain around my body subsided.

"What is that?" I asked. They weren't looking like anything close to ice cream.

"That was called ambrosia, and this is nectar," my mom replied as she took the bottle of juice from Josh's hand and gave it to me. I dranked it, and it was just like the ambrosia but tasted like a vanilla shake from my favorite restaurant.

"Mom, why couldn't everything taste like this that you cooked?" I asked.

"Because I believe in living, predicting what you're tasting."

"You should be on a comedy show, mom."

I looked outside again, the nectar and ambrosia clearing up my vision. "Why are we on a plane?"

My mom's face went white a little. "We're going to a summer camp."

"Why are we-"

"Hey, Don," Josh butted in. "Why haven't you ever told me your mom was a magician, turning the dogs to dust?"

"Turning the … what?" I turned to my mom for an explanation.

She was whiter now. "Look, some of the questions you have now will best be answered in the future. I'll answer the ones that won't make a difference."

"Wha… ok, then, what was that horse/chicken thing I shot down?" I asked her.

"Later."

"Why did those hounds attack us rather than the animal?"

"Later."

"How did you turn the hounds to dust?" Joshed ask.

"Later."

"May I have a hundred dollars?"

"Later."

I blinked, wondering if she realized what she said. Apparently, looking at her face, she meant it.

Just then, the intercom came on. "Please excuse the interruption. We will now be beginning our decent. Please make sure that your seatbelts are on. Thank you."

I buckled up and laid back on the seat, which was a huge mistake. Forgetting the wounds on my back, I shot up in pain.

"Don't lean back," said Josh, a little too late. "The wounds on your back won't probably heal for a couple of weeks at best."

I nodded, and leaned forward, remembering what happened at the park. Out of habit, I reached back to play with my arrow, the realized they weren't there. Then I also realized my bow and my iPod were missing, too.

"Hey, uh, where's my stuff?" I asked my mom and Josh. Josh reached up and patted the storage unit above his seat. I sighed in relief. At least I can enjoy wherever I'm going. He opened it and I saw my orange camping backpack with arrows popping out of it and Josh's with his medical kit. But I didn't see anything else.

"Where's your stuff, mom?" I asked.

At that sentence, she began to sniffle. "The camp isn't for me, Don. It'll just be you two, hopefully for the summer. I can make sure you guys get to a taxi, but from there, I'll have to head home."

"Oh, ok."

I honestly didn't know what was making my mom cry about sending me to camp. I was beginning to think it was a boot camp, but my mom wouldn't do that. Would she?

I turned to Josh to ask if he knew, but before I could even ask, he mouthed _later._

The plane's decent seemed like forever, but eventually it did. The intercom turned on again when it did: "Travelers, we have now touched down on the LaGuardia airport. Please make sure you have all your belongings for the LaGuardia airport does not provide a lost and found. Thank you."

"Finally!" Josh said, "I thought it would take forever to get off this thing. I'm going to have more of that nectar stuff."

"No!" my mom yelled. Then she took a deep breath and tried to relax. "The nectar and ambrosia is only for an emergency. Take too much of it and…" she stopped. Her face was very white now. Whatever was in that heavenly stuff must had some addiction stuff in it.

I could tell she was on her last line before sobbing, so I didn't say anything as we made our way through the airport and got a cab. It was still dark outside. I was guessing it was like eleven or midnight from the moon. My mom held up her thumb, and just like that, a taxi pulled over. Josh and I put our stuff in the trunk as mom paid for the cab. I was so glad they updated the cab from normal hovercraft to diesel: I could really smell the difference. When we finished stuffing our stuff in the cab, I told Josh to wait for me in the back seat. Then I turned and waited for my mo talking to the driver.

When she was finished, she turned towards me. I looked at her and smiled, but she seemed to have a hard time doing it with her sniffling most of the time. "Alright, hold on…" she turned around and took many deep breaths. Then she turned around again towards me. "Ok, I paid the driver to take you to a McDonald's. Once you get there, you want to cross the street onto a dirt countryside road. Then keep walking until you see a strawberry farm. Go towards it when you see it and you should find yourselves around easily from there. Here, and take these."

My mom dug through her purse and took out three knives: two of them were hunting knives and one of them was a surgical. I noticed one of the copies was the knife she probably used to turn the dogs into pixie dust. "One of the hunting knives and the surgical knife is for Josh. Do not lose these. They will be valuable at camp. Oh, and take this, too, for … spending money." She handed me a hundred dollars. I seriously thought she was kidding about that, but that made my day. I took all the stuff and cradled them in my arms.

"Geez, thanks mom!" I said. "Ok, I guess I'll call you when I…" that's when I really noticed my phone was gone. "Hey, where's my phone?"

I don't know how or why, but that was her breaking point. She put her hands over her face and began to sob. I was seriously wondering what the big deal was. "What's wrong, mom?" I asked.

She wiped her tears and sniffled. "It's… it's nothing," she said, which was a complete lie in my face. "Just… just promise me you'll be safe."

I didn't want her to keep crying. Every time she does, she looks like she's in her eighties. "Ok, mom. I promise."

This seemed to make her feel better. Then she bent down and kissed me on the forehead. I hugged her one last time, then got in the cab. The taxi district does not kid around when they give you two minutes. I once left my lucky arrow in it, and left to use the restroom. I came back, they were gone.

The moment I closed the door, the taxi went. I turned to see my mom waving, then turning back to the airport. Once she was out of sight, I turned around and slumped in my seat.

"Josh, do you have my phone?"

"She wanted me to tell you about that," he said. "She said it attracts weird stuff like the dogs we met at the park. If the dogs were what she meant by 'weird', I'm not willing to find out. Plus, she said there's probably no service."

_It's New York, _I thought. _What part of it doesn't have cell service?_

Josh saw all the stuff he was caring and offered to hold on to it. "Yeah, sure," I said. I gave him the other copy of the hunting knives and the surgical. The hunting ones were in a leather holder with a hook, so he hooked it on his pants as I did with mine. The surgical knife he put in his medical kit. Then he turned towards me. "Do you mind if I share your iPod?"

"Nah, not at all." I turned and got out my iPod from the little holder on the side of it meant for drinks. I gave one ear bud to Josh and turned it on.

"Hey, Miss Driver! Do you know how long it is to this camp?" I asked.

"Not until a while. I would go ahead and try to get some sleep. I nodded, and scrolled through my list. Minutes later, I was falling asleep to _A Change is Going to Come_

**I know, not a whole lot going on here, but it gets better**_. _**I promise you that. I'll try to be updating as much as I can. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!**


	3. Chapter 3: On the Trail We Blaze

**For the story I'm doing, I already have it set up. If anybody wants to contribute an idea like a common monster or one that Rick Riordan hasn't used yet, Please let me hear it. I'm trying to make this story as best as I can. I am also new to this, so if you guys can help me out by saying random stuff that helps, too. This chapter leads to their discovery of Camp Half-blood. READ AND REVIEW!**

Chapter Three: On the Trail We Blaze.

I had a dream of mixed animals: dogs with wings, horses with tails on fire, chickens that look like they came from the devil. Not my worst, but I had better.

I woke to Josh rubbing my shoulder. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, my vision blurry from the lights. I leaned back, not all the way like last time, but just enough to get a glimpse of my surroundings.

We were where exactly my mom described it: in front of a McDonalds, where as across the road was a dirt one surrounded by trees that didn't seemed to end. It was still dark outside. Judging from the moon, it was probably three. Behind me were skyscrapers and all kinds of different buildings that made no sense to me at all. Living in a neighborhood and not a city, I guessed I should have been expecting this.

"C'mon," the lady driver said, "I don't have all day."

I had plenty of bad remarks from "_to suck a…" _to "_you're absolutely right! A female dog's day ended three hours ago!"_

Instead, I got out of the car. I knew I was grumpy some mornings, so I held it back. I got out back with Josh and we got our stuff from back. Once she saw we had everything, she booked it. Literally, only two seconds passed and she was gone going around the restaurant.

"Well, she had a _special_ appointment with someone." Josh grinned and turned towards me. "So were next?"

I looked ahead to the dirt road and pointed. "She told me to take the road 'till we saw a strawberry farm and head towards it. From there, she said we would know from there."

"Great, but can we have some food first? That airline food was so bad, it wasn't even funny. I don't know why comedians even make jokes off that 'food', if you can call it that."

Soon, we were filled like bowling balls. Then we started on the trail.

We went along the road for about six miles or so before we stopped. We probably could've gone another mile, but like all McDonalds's foods, they probably put something in it.

I finally told Josh to stop were we were. At first, he complained, saying he didn't want to sleep until he found a bed, but I convinced him otherwise. He finally gave up and dropped, passes out like a cow. When he sleeps snoring, an angel is not how I describe him.

I realized that it could have been possible that Josh hasn't gotten any sleep since last morning. Taking this time to relax, I finally thought about the dogs. How the heck does a cell phone appear more appetizing than a horse? With _chicken _in it? My mom told me not a lot has changed since her time as a little kid, but I was starting to beg the differ. And why was mom crying most of the time on the plane?

I stopped thinking, realizing that that was putting me to sleep. I wanted to go to sleep too, but I didn't feel comfortable with mother nature. If I got attack like liked in the park now… yeah, I definitely didn't trust the woods. Plus, Josh deserved it. Saving my butt, probably literally, and still sticking with me.

I looked at the moon. Probably three thirty, about sixty degrees. This was going to be a _long _morning.

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After what seemed like forever, dawn finally broke. I heard a lot of growling noises, especially towards a big hill with a pine tree on it, so I was relieved to have a reason to wake Josh up.

He was still sleeping like a cow. Thankfully, that was probably the main reason besides the other sounds that I stayed awake. I shook his arm. "Hey, man. Wakey Wakey, eggs and—"

"AAAAAGGHH!" he yelled and pulled his arm away from me.

"Well, nice to see you, too. I should have you come to my house during all nighters than a pack of monsters."

"Dang, you had to shake my bad arm," he complained.

"Wait, what bad arm?" I asked him.

He frowned at me, and then pulled up his sleeve. I didn't really take into consideration that we were wearing new clothing since I blacked out since I didn't care. On his arm were bandages, from his wrist to his elbow joint.

"What you do?" I asked.

"Saved you from being a chew toy," he replied. "While I was kicking the dog silly, I didn't realize the arrow through its leg wasn't good enough to hold it down. It dove its nails into my arm. Luckily, your mom turned it to dust when it got me, along with the horse and the other one."

I was feeling bad. I was useless. If I had to take one down, I don't think I could have.

"Alright," I said, changing the subject, "I don't really trust the woods, so lets start bouncing."

Josh didn't like it, but he reluctantly got up. Josh picked his pack up and slung it over his back. For multiple reasons, I put on my quiver during the night. Once we were ready, we headed on the trail again.

I soon later realized what luck I had by choosing to wait until morning. After a few more miles, we smelled the strawberries. We would have probably missed it, not because it didn't stand out, but how far off the road it was. From there, I just followed my nose (for the fruity taste that shows!).

When we got to the farm, it was beautiful. Rows and rows of strawberries lined up, god who knows how many. Apparently, Josh had a different idea of beautiful.

"Mmmm," he moaned, smacking his lips. "Breakfast."

I looked around to see if anybody was seeing us, but there was nobody in sight. I was hungry, too, but something about them told me no.

Josh walked up to the berries and took a deep breath. Then, from somewhere off, I heard music like a clarinet or… reed pipes. Once the music started, a familiar tune which would have had the lyrics, "Nobody's perfect! I got to work it! Again and again…" tThen leaves started to shake. Next, just like that, bugs and insects all spontaneously flew off the leaves.

"What the?" Josh cried as he fell back and crawled against my leg.

Then the tune stopped once I saw all the bugs get off. Then another tune started that sounded like Brittney Spears. Once that one was playing, the berries began to grow like a balloon. They were getting huge. The tune then stopped after five seconds, but that changed the fruit totally. They were freaking HUGE. Each strawberry was about the size of an iPhone.

"Well, then," I said to Josh as he got up, using me for support, "would you still like to have breakfast?"

"Can chicken fly?"

"Yes."

"That horse didn't count."

I looked around towards the direction where the music came from. "Hello?" I shouted. No answer.

I looked around. Along the farm was a shed with horses on the side. "C'mon," I said, "maybe the farmers are taking a break."

"Who's going to be up at five to six in the morning?" he asked, but we still kept walking. The shed doors were open, so we peeked inside. Boxes and boxes were filled with strawberries that reached about the top of the roof. But there was no one. I thought.

"Alright, no one home," Josh sighed in relief. "Were else?"

I looked around again, analyzing my surroundings. To our right were the woods, which I didn't trust after last night. To our left far away was a river.

"Let's try the river," I suggested. "I learned how to gut a fish at the nature camp two years ago."

Josh didn't have any better ideas, so we went towards it. Once we got there, Josh got excited and pointed. "A house!" he said and pointed across the river. Across was a brown house, who knew how big it was. I looked down and saw no fish in the river. "Alright," I said.

It probably took us two minutes to get across since we had to take off our shoes. Who knows if there were extra clothes in there. Then we started towards the house.

As I got closer, I realized the house was a lot bigger than I thought. It was a four story seaside house with an eagle vane on top. This person must be a millionaire, I thought. Strawberry farm, big house by a river, what next?

The house had a wooden porch with a ceiling fan. Josh knocked on the door and waited. After a minute, he knocked again. Still nobody. Then his patience wore off.

"C'mon!" he yelled as he banged on the door.

Finally, the door opened, and I thought I lost it. There right in front of us was a guy mixed with a… donkey or a horse. I was pretty sure it was a horse, but the guy, a middle aged guy with thin hair and a beard, was wearing pink pajama tops. On top of that, its tail was in a curl.

Josh muttered "Mother…" and passed out onto the ground.

The guy looked down at Josh. "Oh dear, not another one out from the heat."

"Um, sir," I said. "I don't think it's because it's a hundred and three, but you're mixed with a… horse."

I wanted to say donkey, but after seeing the chicken mixed with the horse, I'm pretty sure whichever lab was doing tests left their windows open.

The guy/horse looked at me, then to Josh, then to me.

"I'm sorry, but do you need something?"

I wanted to say _No thanks. Wrong strawberry farm, _but I asked instead. I doubt that there were two strawberry farms.

I swallowed. "Um, yeah, do you happen to know were a camp is? My mom said to find a strawberry farm and we'll know what to do."

The horse squinted at me, and then scratched his beard. "I am sorry; I thought you two were already heroes of the camp." He then smiled. "My boy, you are at the right place. Welcome to Camp HalfBlood."

**Please, guys. I really want the reviews. Even if you just put "Hi!" or a simple "Thank you!", that'll make me feel like I'm doing something for a cause and not just saying a story with no listeners. Thank you for the person who did, but reviews are like my drive for doing this. Thank you! READ AND REVIEW!—Flappy741**


	4. Chapter 4: Camp Halfblood

**Alright, the previous three chapters were from a journal I was writing in, so the rest of the chapters might be posted as fast as the other three. If you guys have anything you might want to involve, let me know. READ AND REVIEW!—Flappy741**

Chapter 4: Camp Halfblood

"What?" I asked completely confused. I looked around again. All I saw was the river and the strawberry far off in the distance. "Were is everybody?"

"Sleeping," the half man and horse answered. "My boy, do you realize what time it is?"

That completely slipped my mind. Because of the heat wave, I was thinking it was noon or something. "Uh, six or seven?"

"Around there yes. Besides military camps, I have no idea what summer camps wake this early. But I see you two are new, so come on in. Have you two been clai-"

He stopped and looked above my head. "Ah, now you have."

"What?" I asked. I looked above my head and saw what he was looking at: a bow with an arrow notched with a lyre both behind a sun. "Josh, are you seeing-"

I stopped. Even though he was also knocked out, he also had the same symbol, except his was fading. I looked up again, but mine had faded.

The horse guy was rubbing his beard. "I see, I see," he chanted to himself. "We'll, no point in standing in the heat for a talk. C'mon in with your friend. You boys may call me Chiron. I assume you have questions for me?"

"Yeah," I said as I got Josh and started to drag him in. "What type of camp is this besides summer? What was the symbol above my head? Why are we here?"

I asked these questions as I pulled Josh into the house. The living room was one of those old winter cabin houses except it had electricity. There were a few leather couches that faced a fireplace. An old, purple rug was spread on the wooden floor, about the whole room. Weird masks were also hung on the walls. Two had a happy and a sad face with other faces. I noticed they were from old Greek plays they had in their day.

_Greek, _I thought._ Wait a minute…_

"Uh huh," he said as he went towards a motorized wheel chair. He took off his pink p.j. top and threw it on one of the leather couches. As he turned around, his wheelchair opened like a box. He stepped back into the wheelchair, rear legs first. I was pretty sure the guy wouldn't fit in that tiny wheelchair, be he just kept going. Before I knew it, his whole body went into the chair. As he put his front legs in, two fake human feet popped out.

"I knew it!" I said as the truth must've dawned on to me: "I'm dreaming! Yeah, that got to be it!"

I turned to the closest hard object—the wall—and banged my head against it several times hard until I got a headache. Then I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. _Ok, _I thought, _I will wake up and be in my bed smelling breakfast ._I opened my eyes.

Chiron was still right where he was in his chair. "My boy, I strongly recommend to stop doing that. Demigods can barely think on their actions with their heads."

I nodded, not knowing what demigods meant. Chiron cleared his throat and spoke again. "I have a video orientation set up in the video room about the camp. It will explain the basics of your… confused journey here. Your friend…" he looked at him again. "Um, can you introduce yourselves to me if you don't mind?"

"I'm Don Sharp. My best friend is Jason Green."

"Yes, yes, he will be in the infirmary until he wakes up. I will send a message to have some satyrs pick up your bags and put them in your cabins. I'll come retrieve you when breakfast comes."

I nodded, no longer caring what was happening at the time. I was relieved to be at a place where I wasn't worrying. I went into the video room with a very old t.v. in it. I stepped up and pressed "PLAY." Then I sat down and watched.

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To make a long story short: the video sucked. The graphics were so bad, I have no idea how it was rated PG-13. I was only awake for fifteen minutes before I feel asleep.

Once it was done, I got out of the room. Chiron was gone, and my ADHD prevented me from deciding to lay on the couch. Instead, I looked for the infirmary. Once I found it, I opened it and looked inside.

"Holy Mother!" I yelped.

Right in front of me was a blond guy with eyes all over his body—back, head, and legs. He turned around with all of his eyes widened in surprise. There were some on his chest arms, more than two on its face. Who knows where else.

"I see you have met Argus," said Chiron in his centaur form, as the video called it. "He is the secretary of the camp. He is here to help keep an eye on things…so to speak."

Argus looked at me again, and then stepped aside from the doorway. The infirmary was full. Lots of kids, maybe twelve, were all in beds. Some where sleeping and others were reading a book or eating. Josh was at the far side, still passed out.

"Your friend won't be up until at least tomorrow," said Chiron. "His mind is still in a shock. I'm indeed surprised you aren't." I shook my head.

Just then, I heard a high pitched horn sound from outside the cabin. "It seems that breakfast is ready," said Chiron. "Come along child. There will be much more to see after."

_Best news I heard all day, _I thought. Chiron knelt so it was easier to ride on his back. Then we left the house and Chiron galloped across a nice little field of grass. In what seemed like no time, he slowed down. Right in front of us was pavilion surrounded with white, marble columns, but strangely no roof. In between the columns were tables that had kids, from maybe eight to twenty-two, almost all with orange shirts. Some of the tables were packed and some were completely empty.

Chiron trotted up to a table with kids that mostly all had blond hair. The oldest sitting at the table, a blond probably nineteen year old girl stood up and looked towards Chiron.

"This is your new brother to the camp, Don Sharp. His other brother is in the infirmary. I will assign Vanessa to give him the tour of the camp.

"Ok, Chiron." She responded. I got off and sat at the end of the marble table across from her. I looked down the table. There were nine other campers sitting at the tables, some staring at me and muttering to the others. I was getting uncomfortable. I didn't really like rumors spread behind my back, but I knew they weren't since they barely knew me.

Chiron trotted to a stage that a bigger table. "So, you're new, huh?" the girl asked me.

"Um, yeah," I stuttered, "what did he mean saying I'm your brother?"

"Oh. I thought you already went through the orientation video. Don't worry. Chiron assigned Vanessa to give you the tour, so she should explain everything. I'm Sarah, by the way."

"Hi, uh, nice to meet you. Who's Vanessa?"

Sarah turned around and pointed at another girl. She looked my age with black hair with a red streak of hair on her right. She also wore dark eyeliner and had black spaghetti straps. She was sitting at a table with a whole bunch of kids who haven't looked in the mirror for a while, or they probably did and broke them. In fact, in comparison to the others at her table, she was beautiful.

"That's Vanessa," said Sarah. "She's ok, unlike her other siblings, but don't tick her off. Two Hermes kids were playing a prank on her, and they ended up in the infirmary. Other than that, she's fine."

I nodded, taking this to be very useful information.

Chiron finally stepped up to the stage and stomped his hoof. Surprisingly so fast, everyone went silent faster than my teacher's evil eye. Then Chiron took a glass off the big table and held it up to the sky. "To the gods!"

"To the gods!" everyone else chanted. Then nymphs and satyrs with cooking aprons and some with chef hats came around with food platters in their hands. Each and every platter had good food on it: pancakes, waffles, French toast, normal toast, sausages, bacon, ham, hash browns, eggs, fruit, you name it. They came around and put them on the tables. Sarah took her cup and said, "Orange juice." Out of thin air, orange juice filled her cup and she started drinking. I just sat there, confused as the others did the same. She saw my faced then put down her glass.

"Tell it what you want," she said, "no alcohol."

I took my glass and said and said, "Sparkling cider." Just like that, my glass filled up. I started drinking and it was the same. I soon took some of everything and started eating. The food was so good, my mom had took take lessons from these guys if she ever came.

After the majority of us were done, Chiron stood from where he was.

"Attention," he said, and everyone went quiet. "It is time for announcements. First off, I'd like to welcome our new camper here, Don Sharp." There was applause and I raised my hand. "His brother is in the infirmary and will be there probably until tomorrow at the earliest. Please make them feel welcome here. Second, Capture the Flag tonight will be randomly organized. Each cabin will be randomly picked on which side, no matter the odds. Last, I remind everyone to stay cool. Our infirmary is full, so the only place to get out is the cabins. That is all."

Everyone at the table then started to get up and get together. I got up and felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to expect Chiron, but it was the girl Vanessa. _How'd she get here so fast? _I thought.

She was scary in her own way. Her intense brown eyes gave me a look like '_move, and I'll cut you.' "_I'm Vanessa, your tour guide for today. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

_Hard to acknowledge that when you look like you're going to kill me._

She turned around and started walking. I followed her as the others went into their groups and did their own activities.

We walked towards a beach with nice sand. She stopped and turned towards me where the grass reached the sand. "I'm going to ask questions to see much you know. First off: Can you name the twelve major gods of Olympus?"

"Zues, Poseidon, Hades, Hermes, Athena,…that's all I got."

"Name any famous hero you know."

"Uh, Heracles. Or was it Hercules?"

"Heracles, but mostly called by Hercules, his Roman form. Can you name a monster?"

"A freaking dog that came from the devil."

She nodded. "Good, you're not off to a bad start. Those dogs are called hellhounds, for future reference. I'm going to start at the basics and advance. Stop me if I go to fast."

I nodded. Hopefully, she had better graphic descriptions then the video did.

She began to talk. "Back a very long time ago, there was a god and a goddess named Gaea and Uranus. They had kids called titans. The oldest named Kronos one day cut his dad up and ruled. Then he had kids with Rhea, which were gods. Feared for his power of ruling, he ate them. Rhea, terrified, hid baby Zues and gave Kronos a rock instead. Once Zues was older, he tricked Kronos to vomiting his brothers and sisters and dethroned him. Gaea, mad at this, gave birth to a new race called the giants to try to dethrone the gods, but the gods held. Any questions?"

"Kronos was a cannibal?" She looked at me with the intense eyes again. I was wondering if that was her normal look. Then she started again.

"About a century ago, one of the most famous heroes was born. His name was Percy Jackson, a son of Poseidon. He did many quests: retrieving Zues's master lightning bolt and preventing civil war, retrieving the golden fleece from the Sea of Monsters, rescued Artemis with his later girlfriend Annabeth, and stopped Kronos from fully rising again after an attempt to dethrone his children. After the war with Kronos, history repeated itself and Gaea revived the giants with the help of Doors of Death. Hera used Percy in her masterplan and switched him into the Roman camp in California with their leader, Jason. After about eight months, the top seven elite heroes came together and closed the doors. During the quest, Annabeth found the Mark of Athena, I don't remember the name of it, and made peace with the Romans. Any questions?"

"Can you repeat all that?" She went up to most likely smack me, but I quickly recovered. "It's ok. I'm sure there's a library."

She was looking at me with a look of distaste. "So, we've got ourselves a joker boy. C'mon, Mr. Sunshine, time for the real tour."

We walked across a river and towards a tall, steep, rocky mountain, I should say. The land curved inward and I saw what must have been lava at the bottom.

"This is the rock climbing mountain," she said. "This is one of the training courses we do to prepare for the real world. I don't know when this might be useful, but we still do it."

"Um, isn't the lava really dangerous?" I asked.

"That's the point. To make it challenging." She turned towards me. "You're not a wuss, are you?"

"Lady, it's obvious you haven't met me yet," I told her. "I jump off cliffs back at a resort back home from way up like fifty feet."

The intenseness in her eyes seemed to dim a little. "Nice to know there's not another coward in the camp." Then she walked again. _Dang, who did she just break up with? _I thought.

She showed me around more of the camp like the amphitheater and the arts and crafts. "Mainly Hephaestus's cabin goes there, but everyone's welcome. Which reminds me, have you've been claimed yet?"

"Uh, I think so," I said. I told her about getting here from the strawberry field to the sound of the horn. When I told her about the movie, she smiled. _Thank gods she's human! _I thought. "Yeah, I didn't like that either and fell asleep, too. They seriously need to update that. But besides that, you were claimed by Apollo, the god of archery, medicine, music, and all that rock. Since he's your dad, you're exceptionally well balanced with those elements than other campers here."

"Wait, you're saying my dad is a god from millions of years ago?"

She nodded. "The official term for us is called demigods: half mortal, half god. That's what all the campers here are."

_Alright, _I thought. _Power to Don the demigod!_

Apparently, the thought was also on my face. "Yeah, it may sound cool, but it does have its downfalls. Like for example: how did you like the hellhound?"

My smile immediately changed. "Oh."

She smiled a little bit, probably at me displeasure. "When we're in the outer world, there are all types of monsters we attract by giving off the godly aura in us. It's not strong when we're born, but once you hit around thirteen, it gets strong enough for monsters to know where you are and find you. To top it off, the more you know about the Greek world mixed with human civilization, the stronger it gets. Some of us let out the aura so strong, we're never safe. This is one of the only safe places for demigods." Then she paused for a moment. "I'm surprise you're taking this so lightly."

"Considering how confusing my life has been, this is salvation to me."

I paused. Now that I thought about it, that conversation I had with my mom on the plane made so much sense to me now. She didn't tell me anything because she was trying to make our way here as safe as possible. "But don't the monsters die after you kill them?" I asked.

"In a confusing nutshell, monsters are reborn into the world through Tarturus, an abyss in the underworld. They can be killed, but they won't stay down. Humans, on the other hand, can die and stay down in the Underworld. Luckily, the Hunters of Artemis hunt the big, dangerous monsters so the world outside isn't much of a threat, but it's still dangerous. We usually use celestial bronze weapons to take them out since it works on monsters _way _better."

"Celestial bronze… like this?" I unsheltered my knife I got from my mom and showed it to her. She nodded. "Celestial bronze is a metal made especially for monsters, and not mortals. Normal weapons can kill monsters the same way, but the metals work better. It's usually safe to always have those on you. I saw from the quiver and arrows you were an archer, so I would try to convert those into celestial bronze."

I nodded and to out an arrow and started playing with it. During that whole conversation, we walked past the big, brown house, volleyball courts, and the strawberry farm. We went to which must've been the cabins for the camp. There were a lot, all in a rectangle. They all had different designs and decorations on them. "These are the cabins," she said. "Each cabin is for a specific god, like the tables at the pavilion. These cabins are for _all _the gods, even the minor ones. I'm a daughter of Ares, the god of war, so my cabin is over there." She pointed at a cabin decorated, obviously, war like. It was surrounded by a fence and barbered wire. On the cabin, you can see a boar's head and other weapons around it.

"You're the son of Apollo, so you're cabin would be the one over there." She pointed at another cabin that was brightly painted yellow and had mounted crossbows on the inside, aiming out the window. Inside, I saw targets on the wall and surround-sound speakers. _Thank the gods, people with my taste,_ I thought.

Next, she showed me the arena. The kids I was sitting at for breakfast with were here. Vanessa explained to me that they were all my brother and sisters, since we all shared the same dad. Targets and dummies were set up around the circular space. "This is where we practice combat like sword duals, archery, and sometimes fights to claim cabin consular."

Then she showed me the armory. Inside had all sorts of stuff from armor to liquids and a library of weapons. "The Hephaestus cabin tries to come up with new weapons all the time, so it's usually filled. Come here."

I followed Vanessa as he went to the archer's row. She grabbed a hand full of arrows with bronze tops. The she took my wooden ones out and put them in my quiver. "When dealing with metal, wood would be useless."

"Thanks," I said. "Thanks a—"

"Hold up," she said as she put a finger to my mouth. She was smiling now, as if her suspicion of what I was like was gone. Plus, thankfully, her voice was no longer rock hard. It was now a little softer. "Tour's not over yet. We still got the stables."

"Good to know," I said.

After a little further of the walk, we reached the stables. There were a lot of rooms, but there weren't a lot of pegasi. "Why aren't there a lot?" I asked.

"You have to tame your own ride," she said. "Everyone gets to take lessons on flying a pegasus, but those are of the camp. A few of them in there are campers, but the majority of them belongs to the camp."

She said this with a little sadness in her voice. "Do you want one?" I asked.

She looked towards me as if I was dumb and looked tough. "Who doesn't? With these, you can almost go literally anywhere." After that, thought, her tough look back down. "I want one to get respect. In the Ares cabin, if you have one, you're the one next qualified foe counselor if the original passes away."

"And I'm assuming its hard to get one?"

She sighed and bonked the top of my head, putting a dent in my 'fro. "Think on your question. First, you have to find it, and there's no specific location where they are. Then you have to capture it, which is even harder. Then you have to tame it. If we're confident enough, Chiron will allow campers to go out and look for it if they have enough training. I'm almost there. After a month, I can leave." Hope filled in her eyes as she talked. For someone related to a guy of violence, she didn't seem so at all. I was wondering then who her mom was.

She turned towards me. "Would you find me weird if I said I found it easier to talk to you? If I recall on my time here, I don't think I told anyone that."

I blinked. "No, it wouldn't."

"Good. You have said anything else, I would've knock you out."

"Thanks for the heads up."

She started to leave towards the armory, but stop and turned around. "Oh yeah, capture the flag is tonight, so I would spend some time at the armory. The latest injury from last Thursday was a concussion."

"Thanks for the tip. I'm going to put that to good use." I said.

She nodded. "You're cabin is still probably at the arena practicing. They should switch to the climbing wall at noon. If you need help or have any more questions, look for me." Then she turned and ran towards the armory, going wherever she was going.

I just stood there, letting everything that happened during the tour sync in. Then I smiled randomly and headed toward the armory.

**Thank you all who view my story. This chapter took a while, but I'm glad I made it long. This may be the longest chapter, so don't be expecting these for now on. Thank you! Read and review!—Flappy741**


	5. Chapter 5: I Start A Jailbreak

**Honestly, I have no idea how long this story may be. It could be a month at the least, so don't stop reading. I'm also juggling school with this, so these chapters may take some time to type and to think about. I'm sorry this one took so long! I just had problems with my computer. I might not get a new one until November, so the postings might be slower. Enjoy! READ AND REVIEW!—Flappy741**

Chapter 5: I Start A Jailbreak

The rest of that day was pretty nice. After taking time to get armor and put my wooden arrows back, I came in late to the arena. There, I practiced archery and got tips how to shoot moving targets better. After a few minutes of that, we went to the climbing wall. The climbing wall wasn't so bad. It took me a couple of tries, but like that, it was easy. While doing that, I met all my brothers and sisters. Robert, one of my brothers, told me it was the natural ability of an archer to climb and get to heights. We did that, volleyball, and basketball. I was relieved when I saw the courts. At least the camp wasn't all sword and shield_. _We played a game of boys vs. girls, losing hundred and nine to hundred and seventeen. Nobody like do dunk. Just shoot threes.

At around five, we finished our activities and hung out in the cabins. In there, I found out we lead sing alongs on the nights there was a campfire. We rehearsed _How Far We've Come_ and a few others I didn't recognize. Then one my brothers Blake, not blond with freckles, gave me more lessons and tips on aiming at moving targets. After a couple demonstrations and practices, Blake told me I was a natural. I also luckily found out that _most_ electronics attract monsters: iPods don't, so I was able to listen to mine while doing stuff.

At eight, dinner finally came. As expected from this morning, dinner also had all the good food. I had spaghetti with meatballs. "So," I asked to Sarah while eating an abnormal meatball, "how does Capture the Flag work?"

She finished chewing her lasagna before she spoke.

"You already know the objective. We're going to be playing in the woods. You can't purposely seriously injure a player; just the clean knockouts. If you are taken prisoner, that is, surrounded or a weapon to your neck, you'll be disarmed. The game goes on until the opponent's flag is in your territory. Everything is allowed. Simple rules." I nodded. She took a sip of her cherry soda and spoke again. "Like most of us, you're an archer, so unless you're backing someone up, it's best you're on defense."

"Can you break people out of prison?" I asked.

"You can, but I'd still be on defense. Once over the creek, prisoners should get their weapons back. I hope you have blunt or wooden arrows."

_Thank the Gods I held on to those arrows._

After everyone was done eating and the dishes were swept, Chiron stomped his hoof. Out of thin air, armor, bows, and swords appeared on the table. I was seriously thinking a sword would be cool, but I held on to the knife. It was the only thing of my mom I had with me. I looked around and saw the plumes of the helmets were all the same at the same table, but different colors at different tables. Ours was red while a few other tables were blue. I still couldn't tell which cabin was for which table, but it didn't matter to me. In my head, we were going to win this.

"How long do these games take again?" I asked Sarah.

We were hanging on defense with a few others of our siblings and a couple more. We were in the trees while others were on the ground, hidden for ambush. On each team, there was fifty each. The Ares' kids made up most of our team while the Athena's kids made up the blue team.

She shrugged. "I've been told back like a hundred years ago, they took maybe fifteen to twenty. Now days, they're like an hour or so."

I grunted. "So the game should be over in about twenty minutes?"

"On normal circumstances, yeah. The longest game yet lasted for an hour and forty-six minutes."

I sighed. The game started about a half an hour ago and we still haven't seen anybody from the other team. I was disappointed, because I really wanted to test out my skills.

Another five minutes, I couldn't stand it. In school, too, this is usually the time I start acting up. I got up and stretched my legs. "Well, not that this isn't fun or anything, but I'm going to go scout ahead."

"Don't," she said, "they may be here any minute."

"And if that happens, I would have seen them and come back," I said. "No worries."

She still didn't like that, but she sighed. "Just be quick about it."

"Roger."

With that, I was off.

I went probably for a few minutes before a black figure whammed into me. Knocking the air out of me, I flew back, but whoever it was caught my arm.

"Sorry, bro," whoever he was. He had soaked hair with grease and tall. In the old videos, he probably would have been called a greaser. He had a big bow with a few arrows left in his quiver.

"No harm done," I lied as I coughed. "Why the hurry?"

"Everyone that was on our team who went to attack was captured. I barely got away."

"_Everyone_?"

"Everyone."

_Dang it. What now?_

"Do you know how many is guarding the prison, assuming you know were it is?"

"About eight to ten. I just overheard from someone from the Athena cabin that they're doing a full assault. I'm heading back to help with the defense."

_2 to 1… slaughter. _

"No," I said, "One extra person can't make that much of a difference. If we hope to win, we need to bust them out. Do you where the prison is?"

"Yeah, but us alone won't—"

Just then were heard yelling. I looked down to see a whole bunch of kids with swords charging across the creek, yelling.

"Too late," I said. "We need to do the jailbreak. If we can get them over to the creek before they cross, we'll have home side advantage. Lead the way."

He was still looking down at the mob for another two seconds before what I said sunk in. Then he snapped out of his daze and took off.

"Darn it!" the greaser said.

Surrounded by a tree with a huge trunk were our teammates with ten guards. The all had long swords. Five had their attention on our teammates while the others appeared to be on guard. I looked around to check if anybody was in the trees but us. After confirming nobody was up here but us, I looked down at our teammates again. Drew, the name of the greaser, said that the whole Ares cabin and most of the Hermes cabin was there. I didn't know who the guards were, nor did I care. All I knew was that their lights would be out very soon.

"Alright," I said, "we need to take as much out as we can simultaneously. Then we go in and hopefully our teammates can get the message."

He nodded. "Have you played this before?"

"Once, when I went to a camp to learn nature skills. I'm good at strategy."

"Alright, whatever you say. You take first shot, man."

I looked again at the assembly. I spotted Vanessa in-between her siblings. My hand went to my knife. If I could get it to her when I go down…

I notched a wooden arrow. I took aim and shot at the guard with the focus my team. I don't know what the sound was down there, but it was silent. All I saw was my arrow hitting a person's helmet, the helmet vibrated, and the person fell. Luckily, Vanessa had fast reflexes. She reached across and caught him before he hit the ground. She looked around, and then looked me directly in the eye. I didn't know what she was thinking at the time, nor did I care. Luckily, none of the other guards noticed his trip to the ground. At the same time almost, I saw what must have been Drew's arrow fly on the other side of the tree. I didn't see what happened because the tree's trunk blocked my view, but I heard a _THUMP _seconds from were I was. The guards looked around, and then I went to auto mode. I just took arrows and shot them as fast as I can at the guards paying attention to the surroundings while moving around to different angles. I could also see Drew's arrows as I was doing this. We took out five more guards before the fact that they were being attacked sink in. After they were down, the others fought, four to twenty-five. I don't need to tell you how that ended.

Once all the guards were out, a cheer went from my team and ran towards the creek. I came down to the ground as they ran. The only one who stayed behind was Vanessa. She bent down and took one of the guard's swords and looked up to me. Before we got here, Drew told me he would lead them back. I would get the flag, so we were alone at the time.

She smiled. "Way to go, sunshine. On your first day, too. Where'd you learn to do a jailbreak?"

I shrugged. "It just came to me."

I stood there for an awkward moment then looked around. "So, uh, want to finish that tour you were giving me and show me were the flag is?"

Her eyes widened in surprise. "You had this all planned out already?"

"I planned it on the way here, actually. Drew said they did a full fledge assault, which leaves the flag wide open. Hopefully, they hold on 'till we get there."

She nodded, obviously from her face impressed. "Alright then, let's finish your tour."

She led me up over a few fallen trees and over a few tiny hills. The flag was firmly placed between to stones with a little dirt path leading up to it. I grabbed the flag and pulled it out. It was a lot lighter than I thought.

"Alright," she said, "we need to hurry. C'mon!"

Needless to say, we ran like the wind. I was starting to be grateful for that nature skill camp I went to learn all this. I was thankful as I kept up with Vanessa that my mom set me up for that.

We were almost to the creek when we were spotted. Three kids dropped from the trees, one nearly landing on me. I was carrying the flag and I wasn't soon about to put the flag down. Even though it felt weird, I stood behind Vanessa. She turned around towards me with a grin on her face. "Just turn around and count to ten."

I thought this was a joke, but I saw she was serious from the look in her eyes. I didn't see how she can take on three serious buff guys, but I turned around anyways. "One…Two…Three…"

During the mist of my counting, I heard sword against sword, a few _Clongs! _And a few drops. "Eight…Nine…Ten."

I turned around to see Vanessa on the ground or something, but the three dudes were lying on top of each other. Vanessa was sitting on top of them with her sword rested on her shoulder.

I whistled. "Next time, I'm looking."

She laughed. "Why, to see how you can get turned into a pancake?"

"You're hilarious."

She got up and we ran again. As we got closer to the creek, I could hear the battle somewhere to my right. It felt like forever, but I finally got across the creek. A horn blew from above and the sound of the battle died. I walked towards were the sound of the battle was coming from. At first, the campers were confused and looked around. Then out of the trees, I could hear Sarah's voice: "Alright, Don!"

The others still looked around and saw me. Then I heard a cheer come up from the group, even though some of them looked upset. Then my teammates came towards me and congratulated me; patting me on the back, hitting my helmet, then eventually putting me on their shoulders and cheering. I looked at the silver flag as it somehow changed from a picture the picture of an owl to a yellow flag with an arrow notched from a bow. I looked up and laughed. That was my first game of capture the flag. And the best day I would ever have at Camp Halfblood.

**Hopefully it was good, I kind of rushed a little through this one. My friend gave me a brilliant idea, so it may take some time to think on the storyline. Thanks for reading this! READ AND REVIEW/!—Flappy741**


	6. Chapter 6: Dream Come True

Chapter 6: Dream Come True

Even though it was the best day I ever had, it was also the night of my worst nightmare.

In my dream, there was a blond guy tied up to a chair with golden string. To me, it looked like something you can snap like a stem of a plant, but he was struggling to get out. I tried to call hello, but my voice didn't work. I knew what this dream was to me. Usually, I have dreams from time to time that usually happen when I'm awake, like déjà vu, but I didn't think this was the case.

He was in a very tall, dimly lit cave. There was no sunlight and the only way to where I was was around the corner. It looked like a normal cave, but it felt…ancient. I was behind the blond guy just standing there, and like my voice, I couldn't move. In front of us was a silhouette of a huge guy: nine to ten feet tall, towering over us. He was a giant. "So," the figure said, "do you still believe my plan won't work, Apollo?"

Goosebumps went down my back. The guy I was looking at was _my dad._

"I don't care how well planned it is! You won't get away with it! My children will stop you!"

The giant smiled like this amused him. "Good. Let them come to me. Entertainment and a sacrifice to my mother."

Then there was a huge rumble that shook the cave. Rocks fell from the ground as it shook my head.

"Well," the giant said. "Looks like my _intended _guest is here."

"No," said Apollo, and he turned around.

At first, I heard nothing. Then I heard footsteps: light and fast. They sounded like they had a pattern, so I knew it must have been a woman's. Then around the corner was a woman. No, not a woman. A _girl. _She looked pretty young, maybe younger than me, with a curtain-like skirt that went to the knees. She had long, black hair and…besides that, looked like Apollo. She had a hunting bow and a quiver full of arrows.

"No!" Apollo cried. "Run sis! It's not me he wants, but _you!_"

"Not without you, brother," she said. That's were the woman part came to me: her voice. Even though she looked younger than me, she had a deeper voice. I felt weird that her voice was like this. My thoughts were throwing me way off. And another thing came to me: the girl was Artemis.

"No, you don't understand! This isn't like the first time! Get out of here!"

Then the giant stood up. "Enough." He waved his hand and Apollo yelled. I didn't see any wire or anything that could hurt him, but something was putting him in pain alright.

"Brother!" Artemis yelled. Then she looked up at the giant with rage, which was pretty funny to me to see a nine to ten year old look ready to kill something twenty times her size. "I will destroy you for this!" She took an arrow and shot it. It was swift and elegant with blinding speed, but the giant caught it. Even though it was a silhouette, I could still see the corners of his mouth rising.

"Welcome, Lady Artemis! Do you like my set up I made for you? It was really worth the time to make." He waved his arm again, and Apollo yelled, even louder than before. Blood rose to my ears, from my anger and the noise, though I hear louder stuff from my iPod.

Artemis's face was absolute rage, which again, I found funny. "You fiend…" she took another arrow which had green liquid on it and shot it. As it flew, the tip of the arrow got on green fire, and burned the rest of the arrow up so it was like a fireball. But the giant acted like this was a pillow fight and easily sidestepped.

"Oh," he chided, "aren't we feistier than last time! And do tell me: are your lovely assistances here with you? The more, the better!"

"You mindless little…" then she lost it. She put her bow behind her back and took out two identical hunting knives and charged.

"Don't!" Apollo yelled.

She ran up to the giant as the giant smiled again. She ran into the dark, jumped up, and swung at his chest. The giant turned a little bit and brought his fist down at her. But just as swift as she looked, she cart wheeled in midair and stood on the hand, like standing on the roof, and jumped off it, swinging at the chest again. It was a very accurate strike, but he drop, like predicting that move. He fell to the ground and rolled, bringing his backhand at her. But as if she predicted it, she turned and flipped, the fist seeming to barely miss her by inches. From then on, that was what the battle was like: they knew exactly one move ahead of each other and attacked accordingly. The fight would have been worth millions if it wasn't what seemed a dangerous thing to do.

Eventually, the error occurred. As Artemis leaped onto the ground, her foot slipped. She fell, but got right up as fast as she did. She jumped again, but this time, it was too slow. The giants fist rammed her head on, knuckles against her body. She flew and hit the wall, then fell to the ground, knives out of hand. After that, she didn't move.

"No." Apollo said, but it was pointless. That fist came at her like a train, and I know how far dummies fly when they do. If she was hit that hard, her lights were out.

"No! You female dog! Donkey! You worthless son of a—" then Apollo yelled as the giant waved his fist. He bent down and picked Artemis up like fish. He held her in one hand and gravely smiled.

"Finally," the giant said. "It is time for my revenge!" Then he looked at me directly and laughed.

"No!" I said and woke up, shooting straight up. I looked around in cold sweat. My siblings were fast asleep in their beds. I realized I was breathing heavily. I didn't know whether that dream happened then and there or it'll happen in the future. I laid back, remembering my dad, Artemis getting hit, the silhouette of the giant. I ran my hand beneath my bunk and got my iPod. It was three fourteen. I tried to relax and take deep breaths. I put on my earplugs and hit shuffle. Then I fell back, trying to think of anything…_anything_ but that, but it was no use. Morning came fast, but through that whole time, I didn't get a wink more of sleep.

After breakfast, I went straight to the infirmary. The dream was to much to bear alone, so I needed to see Josh. Hopefully he was awake and I figured he would since his injuries heal fast. I went into the house and looked into the infirmary.

"Hey, Don!" Josh was up against the same bed where he was last time reading his symptoms and diseases. There were two girls and a guy around his bed looking up at me. He was loud, and I smiled. It was good to see my best friend well. "Hey, man, what's up?"

"I found out that the sky is blue."

"Funny. Who are these guys?"

One of the girls stood up. She was black with braids to her waist. "I'm May, and this is Joy and Tim. We help assist around the house like maids. We were just listening to Josh read his book and him telling us a few cool stuff."

"Yeah, we can seriously use him around this place," Tim said.

"Aww, it ok." Josh said, and then looked up. "Why didn't you visit me yesterday?"

"What do you mean?" I asked. "How long have you been up?"

"Since noon yesterday. I found out I missed Capture the Flag! Do you know how pissed I was when I heard that?"

"What? Chiron said you wouldn't' be conscious until this morning!"

"Who's Chiron?"

"The do—the horse guy you saw and fell unconscious to."

"Oh, so that was his name. Yeah, he came in and showed me this video in here about the place. Is it true our dad is Apollo?"

I stopped, remembering my dream again. I don't know why, but it bugged me and reminded me why I came to Josh in the first place. "Um, yeah, our dad is Apollo. That's probably were I got my archery and you got your medicine skills."

"Huh, I was wondering who I got that from. My mom was anything but healthy." Then he paused for a moment. "Isn't it weird that our mom's…"

"Don't even say it," I said. "I don't want to think about. So when can you walk about?"

"Whenever. I couldn't yesterday since my legs were paralyzed from shock. Funny how that is. Anyways, I'll be up and about getting a tour of this place from May."

"Oh, your going to love it here!" she chided. "We have a lake, beach, games, rock climbing, and down right good food!"

"Music to my ears!" he said. He looked up towards me. "So how long do you plan on staying here?"

I wanted to tell Josh of my dream in private, but with them around, I knew that wasn't going to happen.

"I'm leaving now," I said. "I just came by to see if you were ok or not."

"Oh." He frowned, but quickly smiled. "Well, I guess I'll see you when my tour is over!"

"Yeah," I said. "See you then." Then I turned around and left. I stepped on the porch and stood there for a moment. I'll have to wait till later to tell Josh. I knew that Sarah was my older sister, but I didn't feel exactly comfortable telling her yet. Same thing with Vanessa. I knew she was nice, but I barely just met her. That leaves…

I stood of the porch and went to the arena. Vanessa was there with her cabin doing one on one duels. She was paired up with on of her look-in-the-mirror brothers. He charged, sword pointing her stomach, but she easily sidestepped. He tried to stop, but Vanessa held out her foot, and he stubled over and tripped. He turned around and got up, just to see himself with a sword pointed at his throat.

I whistled. That may seemed like nothing, but that was done in two seconds.

"What's a squirt like you doing out of place?" A heavy voice said behind me. A tall, ripped guy was glaring at me like I was gum at the bottom of a table.

I swallowed and thought fast. "Just viewing the top cabin of battle. No wonder we won last night. If I was with Athena's, I would be losing every time." A little over the top, but it got the job done.

He grinned and unshethered his sword. "Well, it does take time to master fighting like us, but I'm glad a newbie like you sees the value. Perhaps a demonstration?"

I had no need to be turned into sliced cheese, but I wasn't in a hurry. "Show me your master skills."

He puffed up his chest to make himself look stronger, then twirled his sword. Even though the guy needed lessons from the Aphrodite cabin, he didn't need any lessons from the sword. He swung his sword back and for, doing spins, and a chop at the nearest tree to finish. It wasn't a slice, but it ran right through it. Then he plucked it out and settled it on his shoulder. "That is true work."

"I agree," I said. "Maybe you or on of your siblings can teach me one day."

"How about now?"

"Ah, now is not the time. I came to ask a question, but got sidetracked. Do you know where Chiron is?"

"I can show him," said a voice as a hand fell on my shoulder. I turned around.

Vanessa was looking at me first with her sword drawed, then at her brother. I swear, she was like my mom, she was that quiet.

Her brother grunted like he didn't approve of this, then he looked at me again. "Sure," he said, "but make sure you teach this guy a lesson."

He walked to the box of weapons and plucked out a sword. Then he came back and tossed it. "Here."

I prepared myself for the sword to be heavy, but it was fairly light. I took it by the grip and swung it around, not really accommodated with it.

"A natural learner," Vanessa's brother said. "Make sure you teach him the basics on the way there"

She nodded, and spun me around in the direction of the woods. "C'mon," she said.

We walked a little into the woods. As we walked, I looked down, thinking about it. After a little ways, we stopped. "Why'd we—" then I caught myself. "Oh, uh, don't tell your brother this, but I'm not really a _huge _fan of the sword, but—"

"Something's bothering you," she noticed. "What's wrong?"

Dang, she's like my mom, I thought. Silent footsteps, mind reading…if I look hard enough, there's probably an eye in the back of her head, too.

"Uh, nothing's wrong," I tried to cover. "What makes you think that?"

She gave me an evil eye, and I'm telling you, my mom could _not _conquer this one, no matter how hard she tried.

I held it in for as much as I could withstand (which was a second), then gave in. I ended up telling her about my dream: Apollo, the silhouette giant, and the giant.

She stood there for a few moments. "Did you have any other dreams like this in the past?"

"No. First time." I paused. "Will these be common?"

"Most of the time, yes. These happen almost all the time with demigods. But a dream like that…" she shook her head. "This is definitely worth telling Chiron. Come."

We walked along the creek then cut off towards the left side until we saw the old horse. He was just standing there with an arrow notched. I looked down but I didn't see a target.

"Chiron," Vanessa said, "Don has something to tell you."

He didn't respond. He just stood there with his bow like a statue. I was about to speak up again until the arrow shot. It just flew around the trees until it was out of sight. Then I heard a faint _THOCK_

"Ah," Chiron sighed and looked down at us. "For future reference, please wait until I shoot before speaking, Mr. Sharp."

"Chiron," Vanessa repeated patiently, "Don has something to tell you."

She started off saying the story up to the point till she forgot the next part, the I said the rest of story.

Throughout the whole story, he just stood there looking at me. When I finished with the Giant laughing, he looked up. "This wouldn't have been the first time. In fact, Artemis gets captured a lot from time to time, but usually never in-between a few centuries. But this…" he closed his eyes and did a claw gesture. "Let's pray that the giant I'm thinking of is not same —"

Then a horn sound cut across the valley. "It's lunch already?" I asked. I looked at the shadows. It shouldn't even be eleven yet.

"No," Chiron said and his face darkened. It is someone else that is here." He bent down so we can get on his back and we went out of the forest. He took us to the big house. On the porch were a whole bunch of girls, maybe thirty or forty. The leader, I was guessing, had short black hair with a streak of navy blue on her right side and freckles, mainly on her nose. She looked like a marathon runner, she was that strong and lithe looking. Her clothes had either a Goth or a punk theme: black shirt with a crescent moon necklace, black jeans ripped at the knee joints, and a leather jacket. She saw us coming and smiled. "Long time, Chiron."

"Ah, Thalia." Chiron smiled. "It has been indeed a while, but perhaps not too much. What brings you here?"

"Long story," she said. "We just finished hunting down a pack of hellhounds just the other night. We were about to make camp until Artemis told us she had an emergency to attend on her own. Luckily, we were in the area. Kept the camp the same?"

I shuddered. I recalled from the dream the giant asked if she brought her assistances with her. They must be who he was referring too.

"Yes, quite," he responded as Vanessa and I slid off. "Thalia, this is Don, our newest camper with his brother, Josh. Perhaps you two can, ah, exchange stories as I attend to matters in my office."

She looked confused, but she didn't argue. "Ok, I guess. Is there something I need to know about?"

"That is for Don to tell you," he responded. "Welcome again." Then he trotted up the steps and headed into the Big House, leaving me in an awkward moment with thirty to forty something girls. I looked at the girls behind Thalia. They all looked young, some my age, others about eighteen. I didn't know how to start off. I just stood there dumbfounded all looking at me. Finally, Thalia got the message.

"Hunters! Move in! Phoebe, show them to the cabin, would you?"

Phoebe was a scary looking girl. She looked at me as if she left, Thaila's dead. But she nodded and started walking towards the cabins. The others followed her, also giving hate glances at me. That left Thaila, Vanessa, and I standing in front of the house.

"Uh, hi?" I said. Usually, I was ok talking with anybody, but she had this unfriendly aura, or it was my imagination.

"So, what did Chiron want you to tell me?"

So I told her of my dream. Right when I started, she already hated my dream. As I went to Artemis getting hit, murder was in her eyes. When, I finish, her look went from murder to confusion. "There was nothing else in your dream that could help us figure out who it is or where they're at?"

I shook my head. She scowled. "If I could, I would leave to help her, but the last time I left without permission… well, it wasn't good. Let's leave it at that."

I looked at Vanessa. She was looking at a tree, probably wondering in her own thoughts of the mystery. Thaila spoke up, "Don't tell your cabin about this. Last thing we need is a rebel, even though I want to tell my girls. Anything else?"

"Nope. Just that. Is there anything that you're keeping from me?"

"No. Just keep a low profile of those thoughts until we know more." Then she went of towards the cabins.

"Well," Vanessa also said, "I'd also love to stay and chat, but I ought to head back. Don't want to give Brute any ideas." She walked up to me and took the sword. She started to walk away, then turned around. "Oh yeah, don't feel in the dark about this. If you need anything like someone to talk to or just to hang out, come look for me." She gave me a look which I couldn't tell was a grin or a smile. Then she headed back. I watched her as she went out of sight, leaving myself alone to think.

I kept the dream to myself the whole day, which was torture. I was dying to tell one of my siblings like Sarah or Robert, but I knew what Thaila told me was right. If I said something, I would have caused an uproar.

So I went through archery and then took pegasus lessons, which brought my spirits up. I've always liked horses ever since the first time I saw one. When I rode one, I loved it. But riding a pegasi was three times better. I felt the breeze hit my face as the sun heated it up at the same time. The perfect combination for me.

Then came dinner. There was a lot more commotion that the hunters were here. I didn't know why the hunters hated this place. Meeting Thaila, it was hard to believe that they burned down a cabin a few times ago they were here.

Even though the taste of the food didn't change, it tasted bad to me for some reason. Sarah noticed that I barely ate me pasta. "What's wrong?" she asked.

I shook my head and put it on the ground of the table. "Please," I said, "don't ask." She looked worried, but didn't say anything again. Secretly, I was hurt she didn't ask more. As much as it was right to hold it in, I wanted to have a reason of telling it. Blackmail, pestering, whatever.

Then Josh came by and sat next to me. "Hey, Don, what's up?" he asked in his normal loud voice.

I sulked down. "Nothing much. You?"

"I love it here!" he said. "Horses, beach, woods, this is awesome! May took me on a tour around this place. This is home!" Then he saw my expression on my face. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I'll tell you about it later." His first look was that he didn't like the idea, but he quickly went on about his day. From the sound of it, at least he had a better day than I was having.

When everyone was done with their meals, we went to the campfire. The area had circular stone seats positioned as bleachers around a campfire. There were a lot of sections, probably each one for a cabin. I followed Robert and sat next to him, Josh behind me. When everyone was sitting, everyone Josh and I stood up. "Don't worry," he whispered. "Just watch."

"Welcome everybody to campfire night!" Sarah said. Then she started clapping her hands in the rhythm and started singing the song "Lets See How Far We've Come," everyone else backup singers. I thought only my cabin was singing, but when it got to the main part, everyone sung. I smiled. It was like a church. As they also sung the song, the height of the fire rose and fell, everyone singing being the highest. When the song ended, everyone clapped, and then fire was ten feet. I thought someone would be alarmed of this, but apparently it was normal.

"Hey everyone!" said a girl on the far side of were I was at. She was at the top of steps that split the Aphrodite and the Hephaestus cabin. She had long brown hair, an orange camp shirt and was wearing shorts. "For the newcomers and the hunters, I'm Savannah, the Oracle of this camp. "To begin with announcements, the hunters of Artemis will be staying at the camp till further notice. There was no traditional Capture the Flag game today since we just had one yesterday. Second, there will be—"

She was cut off by a sudden oohing and murmuring. In the flames was a blond guy tied up to a chair in a cave. My dad again, Apollo. He was shaking violently with the golden threads around him. Then he looked at directly through the fire at either me or Josh. Then order got lost. Everyone was yelling and shouting "what's happening?" and "what's wrong with him?"

"SILENCE!" Chiron yelled as he pounded his huff. He may have been old, but he new how to get the crowd's attention.

It was silent except for the chair in the background. "Don, Josh," he said, "the goodness you got to the camp safely. I would have welcome you but…" he gestured his head toward his chair. "What's going on?" I asked standing up. "That looks like the place in my dream!"

I was thankful to get that of my chest. Murmurs started to take off again, but Chiron silenced them just as quickly. "Yeah," Josh stood up with me. "Where are you?"

"Look," Apollo said. "There's only a little bit of time. Listen closely. Find the hippalectryon I sent to you boys earlier. It will take you to the places you need to go. Also get a prophecy from the oracle. I would tell you were I am, but it's blocked by mist."

"What?" I asked.

"Just find the hippalectryon I sent you!" he repeated. Just find—"

Then he cut off, leaving a fire about fifteen feet tall. Dead silence. I looked at Josh, who was already looking at me. I looked around. Everyone was staring at us, even Chiron and Thaila, and I could't blame haven't even been here for a full three days and we were already being assigned a quest.

**Hey guys! Remember that earlier author's note about chapter four being the longest? Yeah… I lied. I don't care how long each chapter is, just as long as it's good, right? READ AND REVIEW!—Flappy741**


	7. Chapter 7: To the Call of Duty

Chapter 7: To the Call of Duty

Our campfire activities were cut short because of interruption. Chiron called an emergency meeting at the Big House wile most of the campers went to turn in.

The meeting was around a ping pong table with satyrs and nymphs were serving snacks. Even though I ate, the donuts were not easy to resist. I was told by Robert before he went to the cabin that meetings were usually only of senior counselors of the cabins, but since I was involved with Josh, we were V.I.P. So including all the cabins, about over twenty of us were around a crowded table. Josh and I were standing behind Sarah, not knowing what to think. Thaila was also at the meeting with two other girls that were with her when they came in. Savannah was leaning against the wall, looking down at the floor. A few girls were talking while another was doodling on a guy's face who appeared to fall asleep. Generally, it was loud in the room.

After waiting about five minutes, Chiron finally came into the room. "Let's have order," he said stomping his huff. The room became silent. Chiron looked at us smiled. "Sorry, boys. I would have preferred to have an individual talk, but since _everyone _saw it…"

"Yeah," Josh said, "privacy went out the window. So how do we start this off our duty?"

"I should start this off," I said. "I had a dream just last night." I went on and told them about the dream. When I was done, it was dead silent. Finally, Sarah spoke up. "I thought we already dealt with the giants a century ago! Are the Doors of Death open again?"

"I don't think so," said a guy who was in the Hermes chair. "We would have known about this a lot sooner if it happened. The legendary seven closed those doors for good. Plus, with the finishing they dead, Gaia will be counting sheep for who knows how long."

"But we can't just do nothing!" a girl for the Aphrodite said. "Who knows what that guy is doing to them!"

"I agree," said Thaila, "I am not sticking around here when Artemis is in that kind of danger. I'm going."

"That," said Chiron, "would the quest leader's decision." All eyes went toward me and Josh.

"Hold up!" Josh said. "You mean we get to pick who we want to take with us?"

Chiron scrunched his beard. "Normally, there's usually one quest leader, not two. Thus, quests are usually a set of three to avoid attraction of any sort. But yes, you two may pick. How many is up to you, but be warned that three is a sacred number. Three elder gods, three furies, and others. I'd strongly recommend three people."

Josh turned towards me, not sure of probably what to do. Great, I thought. I wanted to bring Vanessa, Josh probably wanted to bring somebody of his own, and there was Thaila. She was looking at me with eyes which I couldn't tell whether it was pleading or future black mail.

I gulped. I hated pure pressure. "Maybe later, we can sort that out," I said weakly. "But first, um, what's a prophecy?"

Everyone's head went towards Savannah. She looked around at everyone starring at her, and then she sighed. "A prophecy, Don, is like a layout or guide of a quest. For example, ask me a question."

"Um, ok, how do I save my dad and aunt?"

Then she froze. Not literally, but she made no movement like a statue. Then her skin paled and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Her mouth hung opened and a bright green mist started to come out. In the mist, figures started to appear. As it swirled around the room, the lights somehow turned off. I couldn't make them out. Then there was a reptile sound:

_The five of the quest fight for salvation,_

_Reenactment of a rescue, rebirth of a creation._

_You shall triumph with Artemis's eight minutes of power,_

_But fail to save the hero in that hour._

_The king's domain shall show you the way,_

_Their daughter's weakness shall show you astray._

_An ancient creature reveals the key_

_That'll make or break your destiny._

Then the green mist swirled back into her mouth and the lights turned on. Then she fell. The Hermes guy scooted back and caught her just before she hit the ground. There was the common dead silence again. The moment of silence was thankfully broken by Josh.

"So, the only person close to a king in the U.S. is the president, but I don't think that's what she meant."

"Five," said Thaila. "The prophecy said five are in the quest. I'm in."

I didn't object. She might have had an aura of hate towards me, but if my mom's health was on the line, I'd go too.

"Sure," I said, "and I already have an idea of who I'm bringing. Do you, Josh?"

He leaned in his chair and looked up. "Naw, I don't have a favorite in particular, but—"

"Do you mind if I bring Phoebe?" Thaila came in. "She's an excellent healer."

"Who's Phoebe?" Josh asked.

The girl on the left of her waved, the same girl who gave me an evil look on the way to the cabin. She didn't have any look on her face right, but I was pretty sure she was holding that in at the moment.

But even if I said no, I knew Josh wasn't going to say it. "Sure!" he said. "Maybe we can exchange a few notes."

Phoebe didn't seem to like it, but Thaila nudged her. Then she shrugged.

"Then it's decided," Chiron said. "Don, Josh, Thaila, Phoebe, and whoever Don asks shall go on the quest to save the twin gods. Now that that is settled, lets talk about the prophecy, shall we?"

"_The five of the quest fight for salvation," _said a tough looking girl of the Hephaestus cabin. "That's solved."

"_Reenactment of a rescue, rebirth of a creation," _said the guy who was sleeping a few moments ago, Jeremiah. "That could be saving Artemis again. Last quest for that was a hundred years ago led by Zoe."

Thaila's face darkened. I don't know if she knew anything bad about it, but she wasn't letting on about anything else. Jeremiah continued. "Rebirth of creation could be the giant. They can be in Tartarus for millennias, but eventually come out."

"_You shall triumph with Artemis's eight minutes of power," _said the hunter on Thaila's other side. Then she scratched her head. "When can that be? Night?"

"And fail to save a hero in that hour," said the person for Demeter. "Great. Another death. Just the thing we need."

"_The king's domain shall show you the way, their daughter's weakness shall show you astray," _said a girl of the Hecate. (She looked like a wizard. No judgments.) "Probably the same thing Jeremiah said, maybe a king of some monsters rose."

"But their daughter leads to astray and the domain is a good thing?" Jeremiah asked, "What monster is good again?"

"_An ancient creature reveals the key, that'll make or break your destiny," _I finished. "Sorry, but I didn't know I had a set destiny for me already. What could it be?"

"Ey," Josh said, "it could be referring to me, too, you know."

"Sorry."

"Who knows," Sarah said. "Usually, they're bad, but let's not pray for break yet."

I nodded. "So, when do we leave?" Josh asked.

"Now could be best," said Thaila. "The sooner we can help Artemis, the better."

"Did we forget that we saw Apollo tied to a chair?" Josh asked.

"Yeah, I beg the differ," I said yawning. "I don't know how you trained to go on for hours without sleep, but I wasn't built like that. Besides, the person I plan to ask is probably asleep right now."

Thaila gave me an evil eye. If I was in good physical condition, I probably would've bended to her will, but my body was on autopilot of "get sleep".

"Who's the person?" Josh asked.

"Vanessa. I don't know her last name. She's of the Ares cabin.

"Good," said her brother. He was the same guy who showed me the demonstration with his sword. "Maybe she can continue to teach you. But besides that, she's probably still up. I allow the cabin to stay up whenever. It's just natural consequences when they fall off a pegasus because of lack of sawing logs."

Thaila glared at me. "Fine, we leave in the morning. I won't be waiting for you any longer than that."

I nodded. "So, are we done?"

Chiron nodded. "Unless, anybody has anything to contribute to their quest."

Silence.

"Very well. I'll adjourn this meeting. Everyone, off to your cabins."

I followed Quinn, Vanessa's brother, the cabin. He stood right in front of the barbered fence for a moment, and then swung it opened. As we walked to the door, he turned towards me. "Oh yeah, _never _try to come in here without permission. The gate would electrocute you. And even if you made it into the cabin, the floor is seeded with electrocution mines that electrocute on contact with… unwelcome visitors."

I nodded, putting this in my brain. Quinn stood in front of the door for a few moments, and then opened the door and I looked inside. The cabin was like a war bunker with very nice beds. The beds were headed against the walls around the room. Weapons with displays on them hung on the wall and a fur coat of a bear or boar like they have at cabin lodges was on the floor. Everyone was chatting, adjusting their weapons, or cleaning armor. Vanessa was lying on her bed rubbing her sword against a cloth. "Hey, Vanessa. You have a visitor."

She looked up and saw me. She then stood up and came outside. "I'll leave you two to discuss," Quinn said. Then he closed the door, leaving us two in front of the cabin.

We stood there for an awkward moment looking at each other. As usual, I didn't know how to start off. Luckily, she understood.

"What is it?"

_Nice to see you, too_, I thought.

"I'm going to say it plain and simple: want to go on a quest with me, Josh, Thaila, and one of her hunters?"

She didn't even hesitate. "Sure."

I blinked from surprise. "Just like that? Did you even think about it?"

"What you just asked me in translation was 'do you want a chance to get a pegasus?'. Why would I say no to that?"

"I have no idea," I said. Then I smiled. "Even though you have your own reason, thanks anyway."

She smiled back. "Anytime, Sunshine." Then she went into the cabin, closing the door behind her. I turned around, pumping my fists. Then I headed towards my cabin.

This dream was better than last night, I guess, but I wasn't saying thank you to my dream giver. I was in the air, just floating. Then I took off. I started at Maine and flew forward across the US. How I knew that, I had no idea. First thing I noticed that when I started flying, it was morning. As I flew over the US, the time progressed. When it seemed to be five, I looked down and saw mountains with a cave entrance. I flew into the tunnel and looked around. Then I felt a bump on my head, and my dream changed.

I was at Maine again in the sky. Then I shot. It was basically a repetition of what happened, except it was as night progressed. But when I went into the cave, I didn't stop to look around. I just ran.

Then I uncomfortably woke up with Thaila pushing on my stomach hard. I gasped for air and coughed. "Geez, could you be any more asleep?"

"Was it necessary to do CPR?"

"Yeah, I shook your shoulder first. Then I shook your head. Honestly, I think Percy would've woken up when I shake his head."

I rubbed my eyes. "What do you mean Percy? Wasn't he the legendary hero a century ago? How could you have known him?"

She smirked. "Don, you still have a long way to go. Head to the big house when you're ready. Then we're out of here."

Then she got up and left out of the cabin. I sat up and looked at the nearest clock. Four forty-five. This girl was more of a nightmare than my dreams. I got up and got dressed. I wanted to sleep in, but I was pretty sure she wasn't kidding when she said she wasn't waiting for me.

I got my backpack with my stuff: my knife from my mom, ambrosia and nectar, my iPod, and my bow and quiver with mixed wood and celestial bronze arrows. I also still had the hundred dollars my mom gave me. I was set…except for food.

I headed out of the cabin and towards the big house. Everything was there when I went in: my friends and breakfast. I sat down and helped myself to a cinnamon roll and bacon and eggs. Josh and Vanessa were also digging in with me. They were also kind enough to wait for me before they started. True friends, I thought.

Thaila and Phoebe were sitting on the side of the ping pong table talking. "So," I asked as I ate my bacon, "where do we start to go?"

"We probably don't have to go anywhere in general," Josh said. "Remember what Apollo said? He said to look for the hippalectryon he sent us. But one question: what is that?"

"It's a horse with chicken or vulture parts, sometimes both," Thaila said. "I never saw one before, but I saw some in pictures."

I almost chocked on my eggs. So did Josh with his bacon and we looked at each other. Then I looked towards Thaila. "Yeah…about that…"

I told her of our day at the park, shooting it down, and the hellhounds.

She sighed. "It's unfortunate that you guys encountered hellhounds as your first encounter with a monster, but the hippalectryon shouldn't be down. If you shot it with the wooden arrow, it should still be able to recover. I've been told they're really tough, even tougher than pegasus. If it found you guys, then we probably shouldn't have a problem."

"So, what?" Josh asked. "Do we just sit and outside the camp until it finds us? I think we should move and hopefully we run into it."

"I agree," she said, "but that's our only lead right now. We don't even know where to go."

I thought back to the dream I had just what seemed a few moments ago. I should have probably said something about it, but I held. It didn't make sense to me, and it would have been useless if I did and it meant something else. "We should ask around friendly places," I suggested. "If the mixed chicken found use the first time, then he could find us again."

Vanessa nodded. "But do you know a friendly place that could give us information?"

"Just one," I said and turned to Chiron. "Do you know anything that could help us find this place?"

He scrunched his beard. "I know of many people who could possibly help you, but I am unsure of their current whereabouts right now."

I sulked in my chair. "Never mind. I got nothing right now."

"We can try the oracle again," Josh suggested.

"It only works for long term events, not sudden needs," Thaila said.

We all stood there thinking. I was about to say something random just to break the silence until Vanessa spoke up. "Where'd you shoot the hippalectryon?"

"In the wing."

"Revise: where were you when you shot it?"

"California."

The atmosphere seemed to get lower with that question.

"Well, that only leaves one thing to do," Josh said as he stood up from his finished breakfast.

"What's that?" Thaila asked.

He went over to the wall and picked up his med. Kit and hooked it bellow his pack so it was hanging. "Kick it old school. Search for a lead." Then he headed outside the house.

Vanessa looked at me as I got up. "Are you seriously going with this? We have no where to go."

"Aw, c'mon," I said. "Christopher Columbus didn't need a map to discover America. Why should we?"

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and headed outside. I saw Josh walking and caught up. "So, Columbus, where should we explore first?"

He pointed at a girl next to a fireplace. She wasn't old, maybe ten. She had a white skirt with a high collar. It struck me weird that I've never seen her, or maybe she wasn't a person who liked to stick their heads out. But then again, I didn't know too many ten year olds who like to be up at five in the morning.

Josh leaned back and whispered to me, "She was one of the people I met on the tour May took me."

The girl looked like she was playing with the fire, making it go up or down. When we approached, she turned and smiled. Her smile made me feel relaxed and ready for me to go to bed again.

Josh threw his stuff on the ground and sat down near the fire. "Morning, Lady Hestia."

"Welcome, Josh Green," she said. Then she looked at me. "Welcome to the hearth, Don Sharp."

"Um, did you tell her my name, Josh?"

He shook his head. "You know this is a goddess in front of you, right?"

I almost stumbled and turned towards the girl again. She spread her hands over the fire and the fire rose. If I could have felt any better, I did now.

"Um, I'm going to guess you're the goddess of good feelings," I said. "I'm sorry, my mom never really told me of the greek myths and stuff like that."

"This is Hestia, goddess of the hearth," Josh said. Then he turned towards her. "Maybe you can help us." Then he stopped and went threw his bag. Then he took out a milk chocolate Hersey's bar and handed it to her. "An offering for you, Lady Hestia."

She smiled and took the chocolate. Then she threw it into the fire. I thought that Josh would be ticked, but instead he seemed pleased. Then the air smelt good… like very good chocolate. "It is rare for me to get a full tribute. When demigods do a tribute to their godly parent, I get some of the offering." Then she took a deep breath and exhaled. "Of how can I help so early in the morning?"

Josh looked around then spoke. "Plain and simple: we're lost on where to start with our quest. Our dad sent a hippalectryon for us, but we accidentally shot it. Until we find it, we can't start for our quest. Apollo said the hippalectryon was suppose to drop us off at certain places. Do you know of one?"

Hestia sat there for a moment. Then she opened her hands at the fire again. In the fire, I saw a nice field of open grass and trees around them. "Ok," I said, "but where is that?"

"Where is what?" Thaila's voice came behind me. I turned around to see Vanessa, Phoebe, and her approaching. Then Thaila looked into the fire. "Is that-?"

She was cut off to my by my view getting dizzy. I turned towards Hestia to see her, but she was no longer there. In fact, we were no longer in camp Half-blood. We were where I saw though the fire, wherever it was. I turned around, now cold, to see the others looking around to as we sat in a field of grass with trees surrounding us. The quest has begun.

**Finally I'm at the good part! I'd thought I'd never get here, but it pays to be patient, I guess. Tell me what you think so far! READ AND REVIEW!—Flappy741**


	8. Chapter 8: Land of the Midgets

Chapter 8: The Land of the Midgets

"So what now?" Josh asked, which was a pretty darn good question. I looked around and saw nothing but trees at the moment.

Thaila looked around. "We should check this place out first, see if it's safe." She looked around getting a suspicious look on her face.

"What were you about to say when you saw this place threw the fire?" I asked.

She shook her head. "It looked like a place I visited when we were off hunting with Artemis, that's it."

I looked at her face one more time, and I could see that she was lying. If I didn't need to look at her face, I could look at Phoebe's face and tell that. "Alright," I said, "you and Phoebe look around one part of this place and Josh, Vanessa, and I will look in the other."

They all nodded. "Let's meet back here at sunrise," I said getting up. Then I turned and walked towards the south of the woods. Josh and Vanessa followed me as Thaila and Phoebe took off running the other direction.

The area was pretty nice and peaceful. In the trees were morning birds chirping away their happy tune while there were animals like foxes and even a bear. After a while, we came across a little lake with a lot of cranes. They were standing around in a river, just chilling. They were far off… far enough to get a good practice shoot. I turned around. "Want to see one of my beauties of work?"

My friends shrugged, but a voice said, "Yes, go on boy! Give it to them!"

All three of us froze. Slowly, I cocked by head to look behind my friends, and I still had to look several times to make sure what I was seeing was real. There, sitting on a goat, was a black midget. She dressed as a leprechaun carrying a club and a shield. She reminded me of one of my grandpa's favorite videogames, Link from Zelda, except the fact she was black.

"Who the heck are you?" Vanessa yelled a whisper. "What the… the…" there behind her where thirty more that looked similar to him. "What are we waiting for?" one of them asked. "Let's get a move on!"

"Aye, the lad is right," said the leader I assumed, the one I first saw. "Shoot the first arrow and we'll be on our way to take out those devilish birds!"

Josh had a hand over his mouth, and I can see he was trying not to crack up. If I saw a midget telling off someone over three times her size, I'd be laughing to. This person was only the length of my arm.

She got impatient. "Well, what are you waiting for? Are you going to shoot or not?"

I was still confused on who they were. I was about to test their patience and ask them a few questions, but Vanessa's face told me differently. _Shoot, _she seemed to be trying to tell me. I sighed. Then I took aim and shot at one of them. The leader raised her club and shouted "_ATTACK!_"

The rest of them behind them took up the battle cry and rode towards the cranes. The arrow I shot hit a crane in the beak, which all it did was irritate it. When the birds saw the midgets coming, they squawked and ran towards them. Once the two groups collided, it was war. The birds were swinging their beats as the mini men swing their clubs to fend them off. The battle was overkill, though. To me, the weapons of the midgets didn't look special, but they kept hitting the cranes in critical spots with every swing. It didn't even look like they were trying. To me, it was like magic. But then again, the cranes sucked at defending themselves period.

The battle was over in little under two minutes. When the chaos was over, several dozen cranes were lying in the water of the river or on the ground. Then the midgets turned around and rode to us. The leader looked us up in size and around us. At first, they looked like black teddy bears that can easily be thrown around, but after I saw the bird slaughter, they looked like literal tiny bears. I didn't dare move. Finally, the leader asked, "who are you three?"

"We're awesome!" Joshed answered. I kicked him in the shins. "I'm Don," I said. "These are my friends, Josh and Vanessa."

The leader looked at us more carefully. In the crowd, one of them said, "They look just like Jane! We should bring them back! Maybe they can help us!"

I stood there nervously. I didn't know who or what Jane was, but obviously the person wasn't one of them. "We're demigods," Vanessa said. "We're on a quest and we just happened to come here. Now who are _you_ guys?"

Easy for her to ask. She could take down three people in ten seconds. She probably forgot Josh and I couldn't do that to save our lives.

The leader grunted. "I am Achieng, leader of the Pigmies. Are you friends or foe?"

"Friends," I said immediately. Then I slowly set my bow on the ground and held my hands up. Vanessa did too with her sword, and so did Josh as soon as he was done rolling on the ground from the kick I gave him. Achieng looked us up.

"Why are you here, then?" she asked. "Um," I said and looked at my friends. They both nodded as in the _it's ok. _gesture. I nodded, and turned and told Achhieng about the quest. They stood there and listened as I told them what it was about and how we got here through Hestia's teleportation.

She was silent the whole time, even after I finished telling her the story. I was afraid she wouldn't believe it, and if she didn't, I didn't like our chances with those auto-target clubs. Reluctantly, she said, "Come with us." Then she turned around and went towards the north. The goats weren't strong enough to hold one of us and a pigmy, so we ran along them. After a while, we came to a camp site.

The site was enormous. It was a valley in an ovalish shape. There were too many tents to count. They were spread around the site with wells here and there. In the northern part of the camp was a little bigger tent than the others, right next to a big pen filled with goats. The grass was very green with wild flowers of all kinds. It was still morning, probably something thirty, but the air was nice and cool. This would have been one of the times I would rather sleep outside than inside my mom's house.

Josh whistled. "Pretty nice valley."

Achieng nodded. "We of the pigmies have lived here for a long time, longer than the elder remembers." She turned to her men. "Dismissed!" The pigmies all saluted and rode their goats alongside the valley and into the camp. "Come," Achieng said. "There is someone you must meet."

She led us through the camp. As we went, others of the tribe stopped whatever they were doing and starred at us. I felt weird. They were looking at us as if we were a gift from the gods.

Achieng led us to the bigger tent than normal and she went inside, us following behind her. Now if I thought valley was awesome, this tent was the meaning of life. It was a house on the inside. The walls were all red with patterns of hexagons and the floor with leaves. There were couches around a fireplace and a dining table next to a window. In the corner at the far left were stairs leading up. There were torches all around the big room that kept the house well lit. In front of us was a desk around the entrance with all sorts of stuff on the desks: clothes, weapons, liquids in bottles, and other mystical stuff.

I looked in disbelief. I popped my head outside the opening to make sure I was seeing this correctly. Outside, I was taller than the tent. Inside, there was a roof ten feet above me."Wow," Vanessa said as she picked up a sword. It looked awesome. The blade looked mixed with celestial bronze and something else. At the handle had a red sphere with red dust in it like a snow globe. Achieng went over to a button on the wall and pressed it, which bells rung loudly around the house.

"Hold on!" said a female's voice from above. Then I heard footsteps down the stairs and I saw a girl come down. She was a dirty blond with freckles. She looked at us and smiled, which gave me a melting feeling. She was gorgeous. She was at the time wearing red robes that matched the color of the walls. She looked at Achieng. "Hey, Achieng. Who are they?"

"They claim to be demigods," she said. "This is Josh, Vanessa, and Don."

Her face lit up and looked at us. "Are you serious?"

Vanessa nodded. "We're on a quest. Uh, why are you here?"

She didn't seem to hear Vanessa's question. "Oh my gods, Oh my gods, Oh my gods! Did you come from a camp called Camp Half-Blood?"

"Yeah," Josh said. Then she started fanning herself with her hand then her shirt. "Finally! I've been waiting forever! Do you mind if I go with you guys?"

"Well—" Vanessa started to say, but Josh and I cut her off. "Of course you can!" we said simultaneously. I looked at Josh, who looked at me. Then he turned to her again. "I mean, we're on a quest right now, but afterwards, you can definitely come!"

Vanessa nodded, little irritated. "You can come with us on the quest if you want. But how about you introduce yourself first." Her tone was sharp.

I looked at her. She looked a little disturbed. I couldn't understand she was being rude, but I didn't let it bother me.

"I'm Jane, my mom being Hecate. I've been living with the pigmies for years, just waiting for someone like you guys to find me." She bent down below the desk, then brought up a crystal and patted it. "I was told by this I'd go to a camp with people like me, but I thought it would never happen."

I scratched my head. "Hecate, being the goddess of…"

"Magic, witchcraft, ghosts," said Vanessa.

Jane nodded. The she lit up again. "By the way, would you like to buy something from my store?" she asked as she waved her hands over the objects on the desks.

"These are all yours?" Josh asked.

"They're magic edited, too!" she said. "I can also turn anything ordinary and make it better. For instance, may I see your med. Kit?"

"Uh, sure." He slung it off from the hooks on his backpack and handed it to her. She swept aside some of the stuff on the desk and placed it down. Then she dug into a pocket in her robes and took out a long brown stick. It look like a normal wooden stick from a tree, but I knew better from the it gave me it was a wand. She tapped the kit with the thinner side of the wand and closed her eyes. Then she chanted. As she was chanting, her wand glowed red. As the wand went red, the box seemed to get redder too. Then she finished chanting and the box went red all around. Then the light dimmed then went off.

She looked tired and was panting as she just if did a sprint. Then she held her hand over the kit. "I'd like some ambrosia, cloth, and surgical scissors. Then she opened the box and took out some ambrosia, cloth, and surgical scissors.

"Wha..!" he snatched the kit from her and looked in. "Where'd my stuff go?!"

"That's part of the magic," Jane said as she took the kit from him. Then she took the empty kit and put the stuff back in the kit and closed it. When she opened it, there was nothing in there. "It'll be empty unless you ask for something so it's light. It'll give you any medical object, mortal or not, as long as it fits. It has a cool down limit, though. I hope you don't mind."

Josh face went right from panic to excitement. "That's freaking awesome! Everybody's going to love you at camp!"

She blushed. "Alright! Let me get my bag, then."

"Wait," said Achieng. She was so quiet the whole time, I forgot she was there. "You are just going to leave just like that?"

She hopped over the desk and knelt down towards her. "I'll come back and visit, Achie," she said. "But this is what I dreamed of. Meeting people like me." She then hugged Achieng. "Don't worry, though. I'll still send you stuff. I'll be back visiting before you know it."

Then she got up and hopped over her desk and ran upstairs. I looked towards Achieng. "Is she the reason why you defeated the crows so easily? She tricked out your clubs and not what?"

She nodded. "Before we found her, our battles with the cranes were even. She came into the campsite one day, wandering around and passed out. We took her in and raised her."

I nodded. Josh just stood there looking at the ground. Just when I thought he was going to do something intelligent, he turned and asked, "Why do you fight the cranes? Do they like haunt you or raid you or something?"

She shrugged. "Our ancestors have been fighting them more to the reason as they attacked first. Now we carry it as a tradition and survival at the same time."

Just then, a pigmy came in. "Ma'am, we have spotted two more demigods who claim to be friends. Should we let them in?"

"That must be Thaila and Phoebe," Vanessa said.

"Who?" Achieng asked.

"They're our friends," I said.

She nodded and turned to the pigmy. "Let them in and to here," she said. The pigmy nodded and left. A few moments later, the pigmy was back with Thaila and Phoebe. "Wow," Thaila said as she came in. "I need to get a few of these for my hunters." Phoebe nodded as she looked around.

Just then, Jane came down the stairs. She was no longer in her robes. She wore moccasins and a woven white dress. She had a bag around her shoulder that was to her side. "Who's she?" Thaila asked.

At the same time in a way, Jane looked up and asked the same thing. "Who are they?"

"Jane, this is Thaila and Phoebe, our friends as well," Vanessa said. "They're on the quest with us. Thaila and Phoebe, this is Jane, our new friend. She's coming along the quest with us."

I could still here it in her tone something was up. I was pretty sure she wasn't jealous or anything, but I could have been wrong. I mean, I was jealous. Seeing all the awesome stuff she could do, I was pretty upset I wasn't passed on magic or something like that. Heck, Hecate should be the first major goddess in my view. But I was jealous and I wasn't sounding like Vanessa, so I knew that couldn't be it.

Jane hopped over her desk and shook both Phoebe's and Thaila's hand. "I'm Jane, my mom being Hecate."

Thaila stopped shaking. "Hecate?" she asked again.

"Yeah." Then she stopped shaking. "Let's all move outside so I can pack up."

We filed outside into the nice cool air. I looked at the tent, still blowing my mind my house was possibly smaller then a tent. I could see from the horizon the sun was coming up. When we all came outside, there was a huge crowd of pigmies outside the tent. They all looked saddened and I could guest why. "Please don't feel bad everybody!" she said. "I'll be back to visit as soon as I can!" Then they all came towards Jane and started hugging her. I felt touched as it reminded me of how I wanted my mom to come with me to the mystery camp she sent me to.

After Jane gave out a million hugs(not literally), she took down the tent and we helped folded it. I was imagining furniture and walls all crashing together and not what, but I figured it wouldn't do that. We folded it up to where Jane could but it in her bag, and don't ask, I'm assuming folding it up was magic too. As we were about to leave, Achieng stopped us real quick.

"Jane, I want you to have this," she said as she held up a necklace. It had beads and teeth all threaded through a string. "Let it always remind you that we are here for you and to come back and visit us once in a while."

Jane bent down and took the necklace. She put it on then looked at it. Then she hugged Achieng. "Thank you for all that you've done for me all these years," she said. I could see tears forming in her eyes as she said that. Then she stood up.

"Well, let's hit the road," Josh said and he started walking. After a few steps, he stopped and turned around. "Um, where's the road we're hitting again?"

"Oh yeah," Thaila said and she turned towards Achieng. "Do you know where we are right now as in state wise?"

"We're in Colorado," Jane said. "Exactly, I don't know. I haven't really went farther north or anything from here."

"Why north?" I asked.

Jane bit her lip and looked at Ageing, who sighed. "We believe those woods are cursed," she said. "Many times when we hunt for food or search for more goats in the north, nobody comes back. I myself went up to search, but somehow got lost. All the trees somehow looked the same to me. It was like the labyrinth I've heard about from my grandparents before they passed, but only nature wise."

We all stood there silently. I tried to think on the myths of the labyrinth, how it made people go insane how Theseus got out with help of a ball of string. If people from what I heard from my siblings that people gone mad in there…

"Then north's the way!" Josh said. Vanessa looked at him with the correct look as if he was crazy. "You're nuts," she said.

"Well, were else do you suppose we go?" he asked. "If we can go up and fix the reason, that could probably help lead us to our next path. Besides, we don't have any leads on where to go yet."

We all looked at him. Then I thought about how we really didn't have any leads. Josh was right. This was the best way and we needed to help Apollo and Artemis A.S.A.P.

"Alright," I said. "North it is." Then Vanessa looked at me as if I was crazy. "Did you eat something or take crazy pills?"

"Look, it's our best way right know and we need to help Artemis and Apollo as soon as possible. We don't really have any leads on anything yet, and north's the best place to look for one."

Vanessa looked at me still as if I was crazy, but I threw in Artemis for a reason. "He's right," Thaila said, Phoebe nodding in agreement. "We don't have any time to waste."

Vanessa looked at all of us. Then she moaned and punched a tree, which snapped and fell. I stepped back. "Are you ok?" I asked.

I heard her take a few deep breaths, then she turned around. "I'm fine. Let's just get this over with."

Jane looked at each of us. "I love my family!" she decided. "I can't wait to get to camp! C'mon, let's go!" Then she ran into the trees, with us behind her.

**I'm sorry this took so long. The computer I've been waiting for hasn't come in yet, so I've been using the libraries. Hope you enjoyed this! READ AND REVIEW!—Flappy741**


	9. Chapter 9: Monster Royale

Chapter Nine: Monster Royale

We ran through the forest in sets of twos like you see the number six on dice. Josh was talking with Jane talking about gods who knew what knowing him at front, Thaila and Phoebe were murmuring to themselves about something, which left me with Vanessa in the back. At first, I was quiet. I figured anybody with common sense wouldn't shoot of questions or try to start a conversation after the person punched a tree to its death. We ran in silence for five minutes before I couldn't stand the awkwardness. "Mind telling me why that tree couldn't have a happy ending?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"It'll make you smiillee!"

She gave me the most intimidating look and I figured she didn't like the old, rundown amusement park called Disneyland. That pretty much ended our conversation.

We kept on running for forever. We did this for about ten minutes and I figured we were in like the biggest forest in Colorado. After a few more minutes, Thaila stopped. "Stop!" she yelled to Jane and Josh. This surprised Josh and he tripped over a tree root. _Smooth move._

"What is it?" I asked. She didn't respond. She just stood there quietly. Then she looked around. "Something's not right."

"It's not Halloween yet," I reminded her as I slowly reached for an arrow. She was getting me nervous. I'd figure she had an inner radar of danger or something. We all looked around. "Seriously," Josh said, even though he was drawing the knife my mom gave him, "to early in the morning."

She looked around. Whatever was on her radar must've been gone now. "Never mind," she said. "Let's keep moving."

I kept my guard up for anything. I was in "full focus mode", the counselors at the nature camp told me. Usually that's if you see a squirrel like dogs do or if cats get scared when they can sense the weather going to be bad. We started up again, and I started analyzing everything. We ran and the conversation with the four up front started again. I looked closely around. At first, I started to notice the shadows. They were long, but as the morning progressed, especially after sunrise, they should have shrunk a whole bunch. They weren't moving at all. In fact, the sun itself didn't seem to be moving. Then I noticed these trees and some other stuff were looking… familiar.

"Stop!" I yelled. They all stopped and looked at me. Josh looked at me. "Seriously? A moment ago, we were agreeing that it was to early in the morning for this, now you start doing it? Did Thaila like pass you candy or something?"

I was looking hard for anything. Then at last I saw something: a bark of wood from a root of a tree peeled… which looked _very _familiar to the one Josh tripped over. "Are you seeing it, too" Thaila asked me.

"Yeah," I said. I took an arrow and shot it at a tree to the right of me. It hit the tree and stayed. "Alright," I said, "let's keep moving again."

Everyone was looking at me and Thaila. "Um, is something up?" Jane asked.

"Yeah," Thaila said. "I feel like we've been running in circles or in an illusion. Stay sharp." She took her bow and notched an arrow like I was already doing. She motioned us to move forward and we took off for a third time. After a few minutes of running, I unfortunately found my theory was right.

"Now way!" Josh said as he ran up to an arrow stuck to a tree which looked vaguely like mine. I walked up to it and plucked it out. We all looked at each other. I looked at Thaila and Phoebe. "Know any myth where you run through an illusion?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I never came across something like this. Ugh, I wish Annabeth was still here."

I looked around. Nothing was out of the ordinary, but that was probably what this person or thing wanted us to think. "What do we do?" Jane asked. She was biting her nails so hard, her fingers were white.

"We can look around?" Vanessa suggested. "Maybe their in a hiding place."

"I don't think that'll work well," Josh said. "We don't know what this thing is. They can probably hide somewhere else when they see you coming."

We all stood there. I had many ideas, but they were only how animals catch their pray like stealth, stalk, patience. Whatever this thing was, it was using all three. Plus, I was getting a little tired. Then it hit me. "I got it. Alright, if you're getting tired, move your right foot."

They all just starred at me. "Don, what are you doing?" Thaila asked.

"Just work with me. If you're getting tired, move your right foot."

They stood there for a few more seconds. Then Jane started to move her right foot. Then Josh and Vanessa did. They were all looking at me still. _More that half of the group, _I though. "Alright. Let's run a little bit more, and keep running until you here me grunt loudly. Once you here me, whether you're tired or not, fake it. Everyone got it?"

They all nodded. Then I can see Thaila mouth "ooh" and nod. She got my plan. "Alright," Thaila said. "Let's move."

We ran in our usual position. After a minute, I grunted loudly, then leaned on my knees and pretended to be out of breath. The others did the same. Jane went towards the tree I shot and sat down, leaning against it. "Whew!" Joshed said loudly. "Boy am I tired. I think I'm ready to fall asleep!"

I played along. "I agree. Naptime! Thaila, aren't you tired too?"

"Am I ever," she said. "I hope nobody comes and tries to fight us while we're _tired_ and _weak_!"

That started it. Once she said that, all the leaves in the trees started to rustle. Then out of them, crab like things started to come from the trees. They looked like normal crabs you eat, but it was a sickly shade of green and had red eyed. Instead of a seashell or something on their back, they seemed to have purple spears on their back. There were many of them, all coming out of the leaves like army ants.

Jane shot up and screamed. "What are those things?"

If anybody knew, they didn't say anything. We started to back up just to find they were coming from there to. They were _everywhere_, all coming towards us. "Fire at them," Thaila yelled. I took my arrows and started shooting. Thaila and Phoebe did the same and Josh was throwing at them random medical stuff. Vanessa didn't do much good with her sword, but she got on her stomach doing the Superman and mowing the grass with her sword. Jane took out her wand and started blasting the crabs with pink balls of energy. Somehow, we got in a formation were we were all looking forward, firing at them, turning them to yellow dust like supposedly all monsters did. Luckily, celestial bronze was strong enough to penetrate the shells, but it was in its own way useless for me. I only had who knew how many arrows on me, and I doubted I would be able to take out a hundred birds with one stone each.

They got about three feet away from us and I was already thinking this was it. If you ever hear a phrase were the last thing you see before you die is what you want or something like that? Yeah… I was thinking mom, but somehow got a picture off steak in my head. What type of good son was I?

The crabs were extremely close to us now, probably a feet. _Well, love you mom, _I thought. I closed my eyes but they were quickly opened by Jane yelling. I looked over to expect to see her with the crabs crawling all over her, but saw something different. She was holding her wand to the ground. As she yelled, her wand glowed pinker and pinker. At the moment where one of the crabs touched her moccasins, a pink electrical blast came out of her wand. It hit the crab, then spread in all directions. As the wave expanded, the crabs that came into contact with it turned to yellow dust. The blast spreaded until I couldn't see it or it disappeared. There was a moment of silence. All the crabs were gone. Then Jane fell to the floor.

"Jane!" Josh yelled. He kneeled down besides her and quickly got out his med. Kit. Phoebe also kneeled down. Josh and Phoebe examined her. "She's not in a life or death situation," Josh said.

Phoebe felt her head. "She's very warm. That blast took a lot out of her."

"Well at least she saved her lives. Should we move with her on our back?" Vanessa asked.

Josh kept examinating her. "We can, but our pace will have to be slower then it was. We'll have to jog, maybe fast walk. What do you say Phoebe?"

She looked down at her. "I agree. Keep the pace slow."

We gave her some ambrosia and nectar out of my backpack. The magic upgrade to Josh's kit was great, but it wasn't good enough to summon the stuff. We trickled some nectar into her mouth and her breathing rate slowed down a lot.

"Alright," Thaila said. "Now that those whatever they were are gone, we should be able to make progress. Let's keep heading north."

So we did. Phoebe took Jane and had to bend in a position to keep Jane from falling off her back. Thaila ran along Phoebe and Josh ran behind the two of them, as we ran behind him. We were now in a position of the number five on dice. I tried to attempt to make conversation with Vanessa once again. "Have any idea what those things were?"

She shook her head. "I've never seen those things. It's not in the encyclopedia of monsters at all and Thaila doesn't know, who hunts down monsters. I think they're a new breed."

"Great," I said. "Just what we need. Hopefully, we don't run into those things again. If Jane wasn't here, we'd be gone."

"Yeah," she said, and her face darkened. With this, I knew for a fact something was up with Vanessa and her. "Do you have something against her or something?" I asked. "It seemed the first moment you met her, you declared her enemy number one."

She didn't answer. I was worried that I asked that question too early, so I held back on anything else.

0000000000000000000

We ran a little bit more with progress. We soon stopped and decided it was safer to wait for Jane to have consciousness just in case those crabs come up. We made a set up in a valley with open grass. Even with all the nature survival skills I got, I wasn't able to tell where we were. That and we still haven't come across a town or anything, not that I'm complaining. The last think I wanted to happen to me was a flying horse coming from the sky in public. I heard about the mist and about how they show something else, but I still assumed they saw what I saw.

We settled around in a circle. Thaila pitched one of her tents for Jane with Phoebe watching over her in case something happened. We didn't think it was a good idea to mess with hers. Who knows if we needed magic or a spell or something. "So what's the plan?" Josh asked.

I sat next to him. "What is there to do? Our only lead is the hippalectryon and we have to wait for it to find us. I guess we can make camp so the thing can find us easier."

"Bad idea," Vanessa said. "Six demigods together can attract a whole bunch of monsters. Best to start moving again maybe after an hour or so."

"Yeah," Thaila said. "Hopefully she wakes up before that, but even if she doesn't, we got to keep moving."

Se we did that. Jane didn't wake up at all the whole day, so we got up and moved multiple times. When was this bird/horse going to find us?

After moving constantly the whole day, we made camp. Unfortunately, it got cold on Colorado nights. It was below sixty and my wounds on my back weren't appreciating it either. We made camp for the night because Josh and Vanessa insisted they needed their sleep. I agreed, but I started to pay for it when I took watch. Since minus Phoebe there were four of us active, so watches were split between two hours. The others settled in and despite the cold, were out in five minutes. After a while, I got up and went into the tent Jane and Phoebe were in. "How's it going?" I asked.

Phoebe looked up and grunted like seeing me ruined her day. "She's getting better," she said. "Now leave."

I had no idea if she just had something against boys in general or if it was hate on Don day, but I had my share of hate from Vanessa, and I didn't need any more. I went outside into the cold night. I looked around. Now I know this sounds strange, but I was seeing a huge… something coming this way. I held back because I wasn't sure if I was imaginating this. But as pitch dark it was, I could _see _it. I debated whether I should wake them up or not. After putting my brain in overdrive and frying it, I decided to check it out. I grabbed by bow and quiver from my sleeping bag and went towards the thing. I started before I heard Phoebe call my name: "Don?"

"Yeah."

She looked towards where I was at, but didn't quite seem to see me. "Where are you?"

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I can see you clearly. How can you not?"

Then I heard cracks in the bushes. I turned around and confirmed I was not crazy: in front of me was a huge snake with a bird head. I only had a split second to realize this before I was hit with its tail. I flew and hit Phoebe, taking us both down. She got up quickly and grabbed her bow. "What is it?"

"It's a snake with a bird head," I said.

She said something in greek and notched an arrow. I looked up still dazed. "Guys! Wake up!"

Immediately, Thaila sprung up already having a bow notched. "What is it?" she asked.

"How can you not see it!?" I asked. "It's like the size of a truck right in front of you!"

Finally, Vanessa and Josh woke up. "What is it?" Josh asked. "Is it mo—" Then he saw what I saw. "Holy smokes!" he said as he scrambled out of his sleeping bag. "What are you three waiting for? Shoot it!"

"They can't see it for some reason," I told him.

"How can they not?"

Thaila just stood there. "Don," she said. "Tell me where to aim. Get your bow out."

"Take your shot now!" I yelled as I grabbed my bow and arrows. They shot at the snake coming towards, still a while away. Phoebe's was off, but Thaila nailed it to the head. The thing hissed and sped up. Vanessa, who had her sword out already, thankfully, gasped. "Basilisk!" she yelled.

Thaila and Phoebe finally must've saw it and started to shoot at it with me. Our shots were good, but they only seemed to pissed it off.

Vanessa charged the basilisk. At first, she managed to hold her ground and prevented the snake from coming any closer. The basilisk swipe his tail, but Vanessa used it as a springboard. She flew towards the snake, landed on its head, then stabbed it in the head. The thing hissed in pain and flung his head wildly. She managed to get off the basilisk and charged again. But she didn't get very far. She jumped at the head again, but out of luck of the basilisk, it hit Vanessa with his head. She flew and hit a tree. When she hit the ground, she didn't move.

I saw my dream flash before my eyes, how the giant hit Artemis with his knuckles. All patience I had from there was gone. I got closer to the basilisk, just out of range from his flailing around. I took steady aim at the basalisk's other good eye and observed its wailing.. _Tarturus_, I thought, and I let it rip. The arrow flew and hit in the other good eye. It through its head up and hissed. Then it fell to the ground.

I didn't check to see if it was okay. I ran to were Vanessa laid. "Josh!" I yelled. He ran with Phoebe behind him. He turned her over so she was looking at the sky. He examined her the same way with Jane. He put her hand on her head. "She's very cold," he said.

My heart choke me. "She's not dead, right?"

"No," Phoebe said. She lifted her shirt up a little bit and I saw the problem. Her whole stomach was bruised. It was read on the outer layers, then got purple toward her.

Josh looked confused. "Then why…" then whatever he was about to ask, he answered it himself. He lifted one end of Vanessa and started to hug her.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Her digestive systems are damaged," he said. "Hopefully not so bad where she needs help digesting, but bad enough were she's not making her own body heat. Mind giving me a hand you two?"

We hugged her in the middle and lifted her to our campsite. _Basalisk, illusion crabs… What next._

**This one took a while to post because I really hadn't thought this one through as fast as the others. Sorry for the long wait. READ AND REVIEW!—Flappy741**


	10. Chapter 10: Rebirth of a Creation

**I want to send a special shout out to Abcadabera who has reviewed this story so much! If it hasn't have been for those revies, I wouldn't have the motivation to write this far. Thank you and for the rest of you, anjoy and please review!-Flappy741**

Chapter 10: Rebirth of a Creation

It sucks to be the "dead weight" of the team. I'm not saying that I suck, but when someone's better than you at doing something like archery, they get appointed guard duty and you get appointed whatever was needed. So I was appointed to lay on the ground with her on top of me. Jane was still sawing logs, but she was just out. Thaila was out on guard while Phoebe and Josh were doing whatever. She still needed body heat, so I had to hug her. It was also tricky placing my hands high enough so Josh and Phoebe can work and low enough were I wasn't violating. If she woke up and found that… I saw her murder a tree and I doubt my skull was as thick as that.

Her on top of me wasn't the bad part, though. It was the fact that I only got my injury from the dogs three days ago. Being on my back was bad enough, but the extra weight was killing me. I tried to ignore that and enjoy being inside the warm tent or something positive, but it wasn't coming to me.

I adjusted my position to keep her from rolling off. "How much longer is this?"

"Don, you've been only like that for five minutes. C'mon, will ya?"

"You're not the one with the back injury," I grumbled. Phoebe smirked real quick like she was enjoying my pain, then saw me looking and it died. "So… what exactly are you doing?"

"Phoebe's trying to sense where the damaged organ is," Josh informed me. "Once she finds it, there's nothing a little ambrosia and nectar can't fix."

I sighed and laid there. It took them what seemed hours to find the damaged organ and heal it. By then, I was pretty sure my back was broken. "Alright," Phoebe said as she stood up. "The organ should heal over a period of time, hopefully an hour. She should also wake up in probably a few minutes."

"Alright," I said with relief. "Thanks, Phoebe."

She seemed caught off guard from that comment. She blinked in surprise, then nodded. Then she hurried out the tent.

"Wonder where she was going," Josh said. "How's it going under there?"

"I still can't see why you can doing my part."

"Oh, yeah, of course. And when she starts to suddenly not breath all of a sudden, you already know what to do."

I paused to think about it. I sighed. "Have you ever missed your earlier life, Josh?"

He sat down and hugged his knees. "Naw, my mom didn't really care for me. She didn't really ever do anything special with me. Sometimes, I think she forgets I'm her son. Honestly, your mom has been more of a mom to me than my mom." He paused. "But since we're on this topic, how was your earlier life, Vanessa?"

"Wha-?" I turned her over to see her face. "She still looks like she's sleeping," I said.

"That's what she wants you think, but she's awake. Observe." He cracked his knuckles and scooted over. Then he started tickling her. No response. "Oh, we got a tough one," Josh said. "Don't worry. I can get you to crack." He dug through his pack and took out a long silver stick. A flute.

"You can play the flute since when?"

"Three seconds ago." He put his lips to it and blew hard. A loud, high pitch sound came from the instrument. It didn't fase me since I was use to any loud music, but Vanessa apparently wasn't. She put her hands over her ears. "Ok, Ok, you got me! Now shut it up!"

He stopped and looked at her with a victorious grin. "See? She's been conscious since you thanked Phoebe. But to restate my question, what was your back story like?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"You don't want to talk about anything," I said.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked. I could tell from her tone I was pushing her limits, but I didn't care. My back felt like it was already breaking. What more pain can she put me through?

"I seem to recall you didn't want to talk about why you were upset around Jane. I know you're not jealous because I am and you're not acting like me at the moment."

She repositioned herself. "Do I have to act like you to show I'm jealous?"

Josh lifted his eyebrows. "So you are?"

She sighed heavily. "I'm a little. The first thing that I want that she has were all those cool things she had when she had her tent set up."

"Like the sword you were looking at?"

"Yeah. She gets all those stuff from who knows where and my dad doesn't give me nothing. Even a hundred years ago, one of the top counselors of the cabin Clarisse got a cool electrical spear and a ship!" She paused to let what she said sink in. "It's not really that I'm jealous of her but disappointed at my dad, I guess."

I tried to see where she was coming from. In the only few stories I've heard of the heroes, they all got help from something or somebody. Life was hard for them with that stuff. Without something…

"Hey," Josh said. "You started from scratch: no magical item or no advance help and you got this far. That's pretty good."

"Seriously," I chimed in. "And if it'll make you feel better, after we rescue Apollo and Artemis, maybe we can go searching for a pegasus for you."

That cheered her up. "Thanks guys. I'm glad I—"

"AAAHHHHHH!" Jane yelled as she shot up right. She looked around in cold sweat with either fear, anger, or sadness in her eyes.

"Well, Sleeping Beauty finally stirs," Josh joked. "Are you ok?"

She was still looking around frantically, then her head fell back on her pillow. "Just a realistic nightmare. I tend to get these a lot for some reason."

"All demigods do," Vanessa said. "What'd you see?"

"Really?" she asked as she looked toward us. Then an awkward face came onto her. "Umm…"

"Don't ask," I said.

Just then, Phoebe and Thaila came charging in, bows up. "What's happened?" Thaila asked.

"Jane woke up," Josh exclaimed. "She had a nightmare, too. She was just about to tell us."

"No, it's not important," she replied. "Just a wrap up of my time since you guys came to the crabs all in a nightmare. Now, uh, are you two in a relationship or something?"

"No," I quickly explained. "While you were out, she got injured fighting a…" I glanced at Thaila. "What's that thing called?"

"A basilisk."

"Uh, yeah. Couldn't make her own body heat. It should heal in a few minutes, though."

"Um, OK."

There was an awkward silence. I hated when that happens, especially right after you say something that someone could easily get the wrong idea.

"Well, if that's it, we'll just be going outside," Thaila grumbled. Then she trotted outside, with Phoebe behind her. Jane observed her surroundings. Then she went to her bag and threw some stuff out until she pulled up a blue bottle.

"What's that for?" Josh asked.

"I don't know what it's called, but it helps me feel better whether I have a cold or sick. I usually do it after I finish my magic training," she explained. Then she gulped it right down. As she was drinking, she looked less strained and tired. She finished the stuff, then placed it in her bag. "I like to call it blue soda, since it's carbonated and the color."

"Jane," Vanessa asked. "The red sword you have…do you mind if I try it out?"

She beamed. "Sure! Take all the time you want with it! You can have it if you want."

"Really?" Vanessa squeak. "Are-are you sure?"

"Of course! I couldn't sell it for who knows how many years because the pigmies couldn't carry it. Though I'm not sure if you can."

Slowly, Vanessa started to struggle. I let go of her and she stood up cautiously. She almost got up, but got weak and fell. I caught her before she hit the ground. "Maybe you shouldn't get up yet," I suggested.

"Yeah," Josh said. "I said in a few minutes, you should be able to make your own body heat, not be fully recovered. It'd be best if you still rested some more."

"No, I'm fine," she defended. "I can move."

"Barely," Josh remarked. She ignored his comment and stood up, able to keep her shaking from under control. "May…may I see it?"

Jane ruffled through her bag and grabbed a leather handle. Then she slowly pulled the sword Vanessa was looking at earlier from her bag. I wonder if Chiron's wheelchair was magically edited by him or if had help. Her dragging the sword out exactly reminded me of that. Once she dragged it out, she lifted the handle so the point was in the ground. "Here you go. Are you sure you can lift it?"

Vanessa grabbed the leather grip and held it up, almost cutting Jane. She wobbled, keeping the sword under control until she was still. Then she slowly swung it around and did a few air practice jabs. "I like it," she finally confirmed. Then she looked at the handle with the weird snow globe with red dust. "What's that for?"

"I'm not quite sure," Jane said. "I haven't been able to work it with any of my magic. You're going to have to experiment with it."

Vanessa nodded, then did a motion of sliding it back in its case. She must of forgot she wasn't wearing it. "Does it come with a case?"

"Oh! Almost forgot!" She dug through her bag once more and brought out a hard black case for the sword and handed it to her. She took it then slid it in smoothly. Then she tied it around her waist. She looked at Jane and smiled. "Thanks. I owe you one."

"Alright!" Josh exclaimed. "Now that you two are feeling better, we can get a move on! Let's get out of here."

We packed up the tent. It was dawn and the air was cool with a nice breeze. Once everyone was ready, we headed north again. For once, we went pretty far without a stop, about what seemed like twenty miles. I was also happy to use my iPod during the run. Me without my iPod would make me have a different side. I should know. I've been there before.

We took stops during these runs since Jane, Josh, and I were new to these forever runs from nowhere to nowhere. After a while, we came across a huge mansion. We stopped along what must've been the border since there was a circular field of grass that was surrounded by the trees. He lot was beautifully decorated with hedges fountains, statues, hedges, and other enjoyable stuff. The mansion itself looked similar to the white house. It then occurred to me that a lot of some of the most important buildings in the country had greek designs like sport stadiums of the structure of the coliseum and the senate house. The mansion house looked like one of those big fancy people live in, but stretched out. In the yard with a plain open field of grass had a balloon set up. "We should visit," Jane said. "Maybe they could let us borrow the air balloon."

"Not a good idea," Thaila said. "There could be a monster in there." Now it me, or her face was getting pale.

Josh chuckled. "Yeah right, like a monster knows how to be civilized. Seriously, what's going to pop up? Medusa in a dress?"

"Yeah," Vanessa agreed. "Besides, if it's a monster, we kill it, then rob the balloon. We're going to need it to get a sky view if we hope to have a sense of direction besides polar directions."

"We'll just be careful the whole time," I assured, then hopped over a hedge towards the house. Thaila was getting more ghostly while Phoebe was whispering something to her. We hopped our way to the door and stopped. The front was amazing. Colored glass of a shape of a half circle was positioned evenly above the set of twin doors. There were multiple white columns supporting the roof that towered at the least thirty feet. Josh whistled. "This house has got to be, like, three stories with two stories for the attic."

On the doors were big handles. I went up to them and banged them lightly on the door. Almost instantly, the door opened. A tall man dressed in bronze armor looked down at us. "Do you have an arranged meeting with the king?" His voice was deep and rough.

"King?" Thaila asked.

The guard cleared his throat and asked again, more as of a demand. "Do you have an arranged meeting with the king or not?"

We stood there. I was forming a lie in my head saying we were servants until I heard another voice. "Oh c'mon, step aside, Burk." He turned around then whispered something. The voice whispered back to him, the he backed up, showing a girl into view. She had brownish, blackish hair with a red silk dress with golden lining all around and golden sandals. Her face was gentle and her smile was bright. "Welcome!" she said motioning us to come in. "It's been a while since we had visitors."

I stepped in, and if I thought the outside was beautiful, the inside was out of this world. A candle chandelier hung above, lightning the room. It was a hallway with red velvet carpeting all the way down into another room. Along the walls of the room were vases of plants and more statues of random stuff like a plane, spheres, and weapons in display cases on the walls. There were stairs along the left that led up to what must've been another room as brilliant as this one. All my sense of danger stepped inside and breathed in the relaxing aroma of cinnamon. Next to the guard who opened the door were three other guards standing aside, making the path as we all came in. The others looked around and observed with me taking in the beauty. The only person who didn't seem to be enjoying this was Phoebe, who seemed to be hating this royal paradise. "Now," the girl said as our eyes were finishing their sight seeing, "what business do you have with the king today?"

Jane was the one who spoke up. "We'd like to check out that air balloon you have in your yard."

"Of course," the girl exclaimed. She seemed to be speaking fast. I could also see sweat starting to break from her hairline. "Right this way, please."

"Not so fast," snapped the guard who

was called Burk. "I think the _king _should decide whether they may use it or not."

"But, as standing in as he finishes his bath, _I _make the decisions for him!" She snapped back. The girl and the guard were having a stare off contest until a voice from above said "I believe I am capable of having my own decisions." We all looked up. Coming down the stairs was a tall middle-aged man in white robes. He had a pointy beard and a gold circlet around his head and golden sandals like the girls. His eyes were calm, but looked like they were forced.

"Father," the girl said and she knelt down as the other guards did. "These people here are visitors. I was just about to show them around—"

"Your daughter was going to show them your balloon, your majesty," said Burt.

"If that is alright with you," she added quickly.

The guy who must have been the king examined all six of us. Then he looked at the guard Burt and his daughter. "There is no need for you to do that when I am here," the king said. "Come along, children."

The girl trailed behind us with Burt following her, leaving the other three guards at the door. He guided us towards the end of the hall into what must've been the dining room. A humongous chandelier, twice as big in the hall, hung over a red dining table that matched the colors of the rug. Paintings and candles decorated the walls. A pyro fireplace was lit against the wall next to the table and classical music came from what seemed of thin air. Immediately, I hated this guy just because he had classical music playing at all.

We went through a sliding glass door that led to the balloon. From where we were at first, it seemed small, but I was dead wrong. The air balloon was already set. It was blue with red and yellow circles, separated by golden silver lining in the balloon. Inside had a picnic basket and a small radio. "This is a nice balloon," Josh said. I knew he was faking since he didn't really even cared for this stuff. "Mind giving us a ride?"

"We should check out the house first," exclaimed Thaila. We all looked at her. Her face was white as if she was cold and was shivering. Phoebe stood besides her, nodding in agreement. _Did they drink something before we left?_

The king raised his arms up and smiled, as if he was waiting for someone to say that the whole time. "What a splendid idea. Why see a balloon when you can see living? I will show you around my home." I glanced at the girl who was shaking her head and motioning her hand as if she was cutting off her head. As the king turned around, the girl's expression changed into a polite smile. She was trying to warn us of something. Too late now. We followed the king back into his house. He led us across the dining room and through the kitchen. I still hated this guy, so all I had to say was that it was decent for a mansion. He went across the big kitchen and opened a door and motioned us in. "This is the room I am most proud of," he said as we went in. At first, I couldn't tell what this room was to be for. It had a big screen at the far end of it and was dimly lit, so I guess it was a movie room. If it was, it was pretty pathetic. There were to rows of seven wooden chairs that faced the screen. The room was an octagonal shape with guards around the perimeter. But what really caught my eye was the design in the center of the floor. It had two equilateral triangles, a blue one over a green, and the green was turned upside down. It reminded me of my old favorite videogame series 'Zelda' since it looked like the triforce image. But something looked oddly familiar about the green one… like I've seen it before.

My sense of caution came back to me as he hurried us to the chairs. "The place is so big, that it needs an orientation film for the explanation to be logical." We sat down. I looked around at the guards who were snickering and whispering to each other. "Um, John-"

"No talking during the film," the king said. "I want your friends to hear it."

I gulped. My nature senses were telling me now this was a trap. _Need a plan, need a plan, need a plan…_

I raised my hand. "Excuse me, sir? May I use the restroom? It's an emergency?"

"Me too?" said Jane. "Before I came, I was out and it's been a while. I didn't know whether she was playing along with me or she really had to go, but the king shook his head. The film is informative, but short, I assure you. Please, relax." The lights went completely out, but I could still see the king through the pitch black: he had a wicked smile on his face and there was no longer a friendly look in his eyes. It was cruelty.

A tape on the ceiling turned on, probably of a remote, and the screen lit. Once I saw the first image, I knew I was already dead. The graphics were so bad, it was _barely _better than Chiron's, if you can possibly tell the differences at all. The first few minutes played and I didn't get squat out of it. I was finally ready to go to sleep until I heard the audio: "…and this palace was created by a hero to his people and the noble king he is…King Minos."

Instantly, Thaila and Phoebe jumped from her seat, but were tackled by a few guards. "Thaila?" I started to get up, but behind by back, to guards toppled me. I watched as all the other guards around the room doggy piled onto my friends until they were all squished. I started to struggle, but the guard hit me somewhere along the spine, and then I couldn't move. Numbness went over my body. I was paralyzed.

The guards got off of me and the others got off my friends, who apparently got the same treatment. As soon as they were sure we couldn't defend ourselves, the lights came on. The king, who I will now call Minos, chuckled as he slowly trotted his way over to us. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. It's been over thousands of years, but I see demigods don't really get smarter. In fact, they seem to get _dumber._"

"Shut up!" Vanessa and Thaila said simultaneously. Thaila looked up to meet Minos's eyes. "I should've known."

"Yes," he said as he walked around us. "I'm quite surprised that worked. I'd at least expect _you _to realize my marking," he stated as he looked at Thaila.

She growled. "I wasn't sure. I still see the mark of Daedalus now and then. I just played it smoothly."

At this, Minos's face got red with fury. "It is _my _mark, not _his! _I rightfully thought of it, so it is mine. And don't _ever _mention his name to me again!"

I was in shock…not that the king was the enemy, but who he was. "You're king Minos?" I stuttered. The paralysis was still there. "But how can that be. Didn't you die thousands of years ago?"

The king turned his attention towards me. "Ah, not really bright, are we. Yes, I have been dead for quite some time, but ever since Gaea opened the doors of Death, she let come back. She gave me a deal: still be the judge of the underworld, or serve her and be a king again! And who would my dumb enough to decline that offer? Plus the price was really quite simple. In fact, it was something I dreamed of building again ever since _he _destroyed it when he died. But nothing lasts forever…yet."

"But that happened a hundred years ago! Where your cane old man?"

He turned and kicked my in the head. I coughed up blood and my sight was got dizzy from the blow. "Don!" Vanessa cried. Then she looked at Minos with murderous rage. "You'll pay for that!"

"Oh, like you're going to do something about it little girl?" Then he knelt down and looked me in the eyes. He was so close, I can smell the weird smell of his shampoo he must've used when he bathed. "But to answer your question, when I reentered the world, I bid my time. Sure it was hard not to help prevent the cursed seven close the gates, but Gaea assured my job was more important. So I finished what I needed to do and let it grow on its own. To do so, Gaea mad me and my servant with my daughter, Ariadne, immortal."

I glanced up to look at her. She was looking down and shaking her head. When we came in, she was trying to help us. As I walked the hallway, I thought she was the king's daughter of the prophecy, but how can she?

"Which is…" I encouraged.

"What you're going to experience right know," he said. Then he stood up and walked calmly towards the door. One of the guards had his hand on a handle and was looking at the king. Should I open it now, your majesty?"

"Not quite," he said as he turned around towards us. "I want the ignorant boy to realize his doom before."

I laid there thinking to myself what he could have done. Then it slowly hit my. I opened my eyes. "No…"

"I created it once," Minos gleamed as a triumphant smile came across his face. "Who is to say I couldn't do it again? But now, be the first to experience my updated creation… _Minos's _Labyrinth!"

He turned to the guard and nodded. The guard pulled the lever down. Then, with my ear to the ground, I could hear the ground rumbling. Then there were cracks that sooned for a circle around us. Then the floor gave away. All six of us yelled and screamed as we fell as victims to the labyrinth.

**I am very proud of this chapter. It took me a while to thing up, but nobody can get an A on something without effort. Please tell me what you think! READ AND REVIEW!-Flappy741**


	11. Chapter 11: Minos's Labyrinth The Slug

**I am so so so (so x 97) sorry about the super late update. I'm pretty sure most of you guys just thought I ditched my story, but I just got injured. Yeah… the injury was a concussion. I was on my way to visit my grandma in the hospital to support her through surgery. On the way there, some car on the freeway spun off and hit us. I hit my head against the glass, and the next thing I remember was in the hospital. Told me I was out of commission for a **_**month. **_**So yeah, a month of high school makeups. Wooh. :{ Anyway, I'm still writing now that my injury is mostly healed, so please enjoy. **

Chapter 11: Minos's Labyrinth; The Slug

We fell in the pitch black yelling. On the way down to where ever I was going, I felt the rocks from the floor beneath me starting to slow down. It hurt too much to try to stay on, so I shifted my weight. Still paralyzed, I moved aside as they stopped, and they probably went up after that, resealing the exit. After a few second, I saw a glimpse of dim light at the ground, and I braced myself for impact. All of a sudden, I stopped in the air. Then I dropped and hit the… grass?

I opened my eyes. I was facing head-first into grass and dirt. I wanted to move my head from the uncomfortable position.

"Guys!" Thaila panicked. I heard footsteps and them stopping. I laid there, waiting for Thaila to eventually check on me. I heard her rustling through a pack, and the others groaning. "Bleh," I heard Josh say. "I am _never_ going skydiving."

"Josh!" I called out, "Vanessa, Jane! Are you guys alright?"

"Nope," Josh responded. "I can feel my breakfast coming up."

"A little bit," Jane mumbled. "Hit my chest against a rock."

"I'm good," Vanessa said. "Are you alright? Your jaw isn't broken, is it?"

I moved my mouth a little bit. My jaw was moving properly, but cheek was hurting badly. "I'm good," I assured. The next time I see Minos, he's going to ask himself if he broke an oath to the Styx. Apparently, breaking an oath on that is worse than death as a consequence. "Thaila! Phoebe! What about you two!?"

I heard footsteps and hand on my shoulder. It tossed me onto my back and went on my forehead. Thaila was gritting her teeth and saying something that must've been in Greek. I'll tell you, the place…it wasn't what I expected. All around us was a beautiful garden. It was decorated with statues and lawn ornaments of people and animals. The air was drafty, as of being underground. Fire torches stood around in a circle. On two sides of the place we were in where two open pathways.

Thaila stood up. "The paralysis will were off in a short time."

"How come you weren't affected by it?"

She looked up and moaned. "You still don't know who my godly parent is?"

"I know you're not one of the big three, probably except Hades" I guessed. "You get upset easily to me anyways, and you don't have any water connections, and…" the connection came to me, "…you're afraid of heights."

"Are you _kidding me_?" yelled Josh. "We could've been on a balloon out of here and you rejected it because of _heights_?"

She stuttered, then stood her ground. "I…I am not afraid of heights."

"Of course you're not," I said. "That's why you got white when we were about to go in a balloon, or did you seriously think a house with classical music was better?"

"He's got a point there," John pitched in.

"Will you two lay off?" Vanessa said from behind me. It was more in a 'please' voice than a threat voice.

I grumbled. "I still don't know who your godly parent is."

"It's Zues," Phoebe said above me. "That's how the paralysis didn't affect her."

Josh laughed. "Yeah right, and I'm a son of Athena: that's how I'm wise enough to know that can't be true."

"Josh!" Vanessa warned. "Do you really _want_ to me electrocuted by her?"

I heard rumbling from where he was and I knew he was up. Pretty much of my own was feeling close to normal, but I laid still, just in case. "Oh, the irony," I mumbled to myself.

After a few more minutes, I got up. We had to wait for Jane, since it took a while for the paralysis to where off on her for some reason. Phoebe fixed Jane up after she came to stand up. Great. Step 1: make sure everyone's ok. Step 2: choose a direction to go.

In a garden, there were two pathways leading out. One way had thorns and vines all around the wall and another had purple flowers as a walkway out. Josh decided to take the purple pathway out, and none of us objected. Any path was probably going to lead us to a problem, so it really didn't matter.

After a while down the path, which kind of was a tunnel, the light became dimmer. Luckily, Vanessa's ball in the sword was good for one thing: a glow stich. She led the path with her sword. As we went, the ground went muddy, then soon was just water. Almost right after the path went water, we went passed huge hanging leaves like as a tent into another room that didn't really make sense. We all walked into a circular room with leaves on them. There was another pathway towards the other side.

"Why are we stopping," asked Josh. "The next pathway's on the other side."

"It feels like a set up," Thaila said, drawing her bow.

"Yeah, it probably is, but where else can we go?" Vanessa reminded.

If Jane's face can get smaller, it was happening. "I think we should take the other pathway," Jane said and turned around. She moved the leaves, but a solid wall was behind it. She turned around, her body reactions showing she was on the bridge of freaking out. "Um, wasn't that the direction we just came from?"

I froze. "It's ok," I said, turning around. "We'll just go through…" I stopped. The other exit was gone.

I pulled out my bow as the others pulled out their weapons. We waited. A trap, an ambush, an illusion, something… but nothing out of the ordinary really happened. We wale around quietly to see something sprung, but nothing. I was beginning to think that we were about to be busting some walls until I looked down in the water. There was nothing in the water, but what I saw was the reflection. And if I was looking down…

To confirm my thought, Jane screamed at the top of her voice. We all looked at her as she pointed up and we all saw it: a giant… blob. The roof was high up, maybe thirty feet with no light, so I didn't really see more than a blob. The blob was on a big stalactite, bigger than the others. It started to move and the cave rumbled, and I already had a good idea on what it was doing. "Move!" Vanessa said right when I thought it. I turned around and ran towards the wall with Vanessa and Jane behind me. A few seconds later, there was a combination of a _SPLASH! _And _THUMP_! I turned around to see a slimy loaf of bread with car antennas on top of what must've been its head and squiggly sides: a slug.

"You have _got_ to be _kidding_ me!" I heard Josh on the other side of the creature. The slug made a hiss noise. At first, I thought the slug could understand Josh until I saw greenish-yellowish foam forming from beneath him. "Acid!" Thaila's voice came from the other side as well. "Stay away!"

Easier said than done. Kind of hard to do when you're trapped against a wall and it's coming at you. I took my bow and shot an arrow. It hit the slug on its side, but if it even felt it, it didn't show any signs. Vanessa said something in Greek, I was assuming. We were about thirty meters away from the slug and 20 from the acid. Pretty far? It doesn't really seem like that when the acid is moving at what seemed like a hundred an some odd miles per hour. It was huge area though, and it gave me time to think. I didn't really know a lot about slugs and I was pretty sure they didn't use acid. _C'mon, think Don, _I told myself. _Think, think, think…_

"Any ideas, anybody?" I shouted. "I running blank here!"

"Maybe stabbing it?" I heard Thaila's voice on the other side of the bus size slug.

"Don already did that with an arrow!" Jane yelled back.

"Know anything about slugs, Josh?" Vanessa asked over the _HISS._

"Not any that has acid!" he responded.

I started to panic. The acid was ten meters or less by now. I looked around desperately. Leaves, water, supplies…

"I got it!" Jane yelled.

"What?" we all said.

"Just stand back," she said. She held her wand and started to chant. Pink light started to glow on the tip as she chanted. Vanessa looked over and motioned her hand _move._

I nodded, then crawled along with by back still against the wall. I didn't feel comfortable waiting for her to regain consciousness while in the labyrinth. I've heard the stories were people will be in here, or the last one, for a few minutes and thirty times the time will go by. I wasn't sure how long it's been, but I was hoping Minos forgot to install that magic in.

I looked towards Jane, who looked almost done. _Hurry up now…_

Finally, electrical sparks surrounded the wand. She said the final chant, then a ball of pink electrical energy flew from her wand. At first, I was thinking 'epic fail' since it was way over her head until I saw the real target: the stalactite that the slug was hanging on. It flew, hitting the stalactite, and it came down.

The good news: it killed the slug. Just like a carpenter hitting nail into wood, the stalactite plunged right on top of the slug and pinned it. That thing wouldn't be following us anytime soon.

The bad news: the acid hurled against the walls, which we were on. I ducked my face into my chest. I was embracing myself for massive stinging, but when it splashed against me, it felt like scolding hot water. People would thing that would be bad enough, but when I was at the nature camp and I got some acid on me… yeah, I'm not going to bring it up. Too many painful memories.

My skin got red as I skimmed the icky stuff off me. I could hear everybody else wail or something of the sort except Josh. "Is Josh ok?" I yelled.

"Yeah," Josh responded. I heard a pause in his voice, then he spoke up. "Should I be in pain right now?"

"What type of question is that!? It's freaking acid!"

"It is? Why am I not red or something?"

If my ears were telling me what they were telling me, Josh was immune to acid. Are you kidding me?

My ears weren't good enough to make me believe it. I lifted my head and scanned my surroundings. The acid was dripping all around the walls. The slug, pinned to the ground, had another liquid coming from it. Jane luckily, wasn't unconscious, but was breathing heavily. Vanessa was helping her get to her feet. There was nothing on the floor, so it was safe to walk I assumed. The slug was about seven feet, but luckily I had my knife my mom gave me. I dove it into the slug and pulled myself on top of it and saw the other three.

My ears weren't lying: Josh was calmly skimming the acid of his arm like it was water. His skin wasn't even water. _That's bull, _I thought. _You give him immunity to acid, probably poison too, and don't give me squat. Way to boost my self esteem, dad._

Thaila didn't looked hurt at all. She was wiping off acid of a shield with what looked like Medusa on it. Instinctively, I looked away. A second after, I felt dumb, realizing the trick. Phoebe already skimmed the acid off herself and was looking at her clothes which had holes in them. I already knew what mine was like: probably a big hole in the back since I ducked to cover my face. I felt my back to check. Instead, there were only little holes. I was wondering why my shirt wasn't gone until the realization came over me: the acid burned my bow and arrows in my quiver. My eyes got wide as I was madly feeling my back, but they were gone. I still had my backpack with my stuff since that was low on my back, but I felt like part of my identity was gone.

I yelled and banged my fist against the stalactite. "Are _you_ ok, bro?" Josh asked.

My banged my fist against it again, then went to my knees. "My arrows are gone, dang it," I informed him sullenly. I looked down as a flashback came over me when I got my bow. It was a gift from the camp when I left saying it was what I exceled at best at the camp. I could've probably thought of more memories until I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I didn't even need to look up to see whom it was.

"I'm sorry about what happened," Vanessa said, "but we need to keep moving."

I rubbed my arm against my eyes. "Alright," I said, "but where do we-" I searched the area again, and the two pathways against the walls were there. Must've been a one-time trick.

After everyone was sure they were ok and had their stuff, we went through. I stayed behind the group a little so they didn't have to see tears go down my face.

We didn't know where we were heading. All we knew was that we were going. 'Eventually, some path must lead out' Thaila said. It was somewhat funny. Right after she said that, we ran into a dead end. We kept moving through pathways with ancient Greek architecture, trashed alleys, caves, and such stuff. After a while of going, we stopped in an area that was like the dining pavilion at camp minus the tables. We all decided to stop for sleep since we've been up and running since Jane and Vanessa regained consciousness. I volunteered to take first watch since I didn't want to dream. Nobody objected, so I sat trying to play with my knife as I did with an arrow. It wasn't the same, so I stopped. I could only imagine what was happening out of the labyrinth right now, as if as we walked through the maze, people were walking thirty times as fast as us. Who knew how much time went by right now.

I probably would've gone into a flash back until my thoughts were interrupted then by muffled footsteps. I instinctively went to draw my arrow, which wasn't there. I cursed and pulled out my knife and pulled out my knife. I didn't call to wake my friends since I didn't know whether it was a mouse or something. I could still see well through the dark, but I still couldn't tell who or what was coming. I lifted my knife over my head. "Who's there?"

"Don't throw!" said a familiar voice. I hesitated, then slowly lowered my knife. As the figure walked closer, I had a better view: the figure had dark chocolate hair with sandals. It wore a bronze chest plate and armor leggings with a c.b. (celestrial bronze) knife.

I hesitated once more, then cleared my throat. _"Ariadne?"_

**Yeah… I can already imagine the comments coming, but I'm ready. As long as I think my story is good, I don't care what you through at me. READ AND REVIEW!- Flappy741**


	12. Chapter 12: The God's Power

**Hopefully, if not by the last two chapter, you guys realize I'm a cliffhanger guy. Yeah, sorry about that. The doctor tells me a few more days and the injury will be like it never even happened. Just thought I'd let you guys know. On to chapter 12!**

Chapter 12: The God's Power

I started to get dizzy as so many questions came into my head just by seeing her. "How… when… were you following us down here the whole time?"

Ariadne shook her head. "I just came in five minutes ago. After a day of worrying, I came down. I saw some steps leading one way in the mud, so I took the path."

"A _day?_" I choked up. It only seemed like a few hours, maybe four or five, and it's been a day up in the world. "Wh-why are you down here?"

"I came to help." She stared at me like examining me for the first time. She must've saw my disintegrated part of my shirt and my friends. "Did your group have trouble down here?"

"Yeah, we ran into an acid slug." I told her. "Nothing too much yet. Just regret losing my bow. Hold up, let me wake the others." I went over to them and shook them lightly until they woke. Thaila started to talk to Ariadne as I woke up my other friends. "What are you doing down here?" Her tone seemed to send a message that she wasn't supposed to be here.

"I'm here to help you guys get out of here," she responded. "Your group needs a guide, right?"

"What do you mean a-" then she stopped. If I didn't know better, she seemed to be getting a little red. "Oh. Well, yeah, I guess we could use your help out of here." By that time I woke everyone up. "Ugh," Josh said as he refused to get up. "What ever it is, tell me in the morning."

Thaila, not taking a 'no' for an answer, walked up to Josh. She put hand on her blanket and I heard a faint shock. He quickly scrawled out as he yelped. I bit my lip when he came out wearing teddy bear pj's. I heard the Jane and Vanessa giggling. Josh looked at us, his face getting read. "What the heck was that?"

Vanessa smirked. "I told you she was Zues's daughter. Don't say I didn't warn you." Josh got up, rubbing his arm and grumbling. "So, what's so impor-" than he saw Ariadne. His face went as red as a cherry as he madly tried to cover up the teddy bears. "Oh, um, hi!

At this moment, we were cracking up badly. Vanessa fell to her knees hard and Jane used her for support to not fall, they were laughing that hard. Even Thaila and Phoebe grinned. Ariadne blushed as she observed the scene. "Nice pj's?"

"Thank you, but, um, I think I would look better with clothes on, wouldn't you agree?"

Ariadne nodded. Josh grabbed his clothes and walked behind one of the columns in the dimmed area. We waited for a few minutes before he came back in his camp t-shirt and blue shorts. We all stared at him as he came and put his pj's on his backpack. He turned to see us starring at him. "You know, some people find teddy bears very awesome," he defended himself.

"I'm sure people do," Jane said, almost laughing. She turned to Ariadne. "So, to get serious, what brings you down here?"

"I came to help escort you guys out," she said. "I normally don't come down here unless I'm sure it was worth it and I'll be able to get back," she said. "But first, to familiarize myself, how about you tell me your story on getting here."

We all looked among ourselves, shaking our heads. I don't remember all the myths that well, hardly any, but if the others agreed, she couldn't be bad. We told her about Apollo and Artemis and the giant, the prophecy, picking up Jane from the pigmies, the time crabs, and to the present. She stood there listening to every word and nodded when we were done. "Do you guys know where you're heading if you get out of here?" she asked.

I nodded. "_When _we get out of here, we're finding a hippalectryon. It was sent to Josh and me from Apollo to help us find something for the quest. At the same time, we're trying to find his location. You wouldn't know where Apollo and Artemis is being held or the _'key' _is, would you?"

She shook her head again. "I was told when I came back that all the giants were destroyed. I am unaware of another giant still living. It must have been in hiding all this time like my father. But right now, we should focus about getting out of here."

"Is this labyrinth like the same as the last one?" Vanessa asked.

"There are many similarities to it, but there are a few differences," she answered. "One I can think of is the time of space. In the old labyrinth, walking two meters in the labyrinth would be walking more than two miles in the world. In this one, it's reversed. Walking two miles in the labyrinth is like walking two meters up there. Practically the whole place is underneath the mansion."

_Great, _I thought. _Just great._

"Then we need to keep moving until we get out," Thaila said. "We're going nowhere if that's the case. Thanks a bunch for coming along."

"Yeah, thanks," Josh said. "So how exactly are you getting us out of here? Do you have your famous string or something."

She laughed lightly. "No, it won't be that simple. A Dracaenae in the old labyrinth unfortunately destroyed my string. No, I hope to get you guys out the same way I got Theseus out ages ago."

"Which is…?" Josh asked. They all stared at him. I didn't really feel comfortable with him hanging, so I spoke up. "When Josh and I were growing up, we weren't really exposed to Greek myths and stuff like that. So we're going to need help by being told how."

The girls looked at each other uncomfortably. "Who wants to relay the news?" Vanessa said. They all just stood. Vanessa sighed. "Fine. I'll say it." She looked at both of us. Ages ago, the original hero of the story got out with the help of our lovely lady here," she gestured to Ariadne. "First, she gave Theseus a ball of string to follow out of the labyrinth to get out after killing the Minotaur. After seeing the string didn't work, after some time, Theseus fell in love with Ariadne. Once he did, Ariadne saw the path out and escorted themselves out safely. Do you still need to be told directly still?"

We stood there, letting the message sink in. My face became hot, and I was sure Josh was, too. "Oh," he said weakly. "Um, o-one question. H-how do I f-fall in love with her l-like that?"

"It doesn't have to be _you _to fall in love with her," she said, looking at me. I was burning up now. "Even if it was me, how do I just say 'oh, I love you' and go just like that?"

"Simple," she said as she walked up to me. She grabbed me by collar of my shirt, and I would of considered the move to be a head bash if our lips weren't connecting. Vanessa did a quick yelp and looked away while the others just starred. The sudden move caught me off guard, so her tongue claimed to be king of my mouth. Not willing to accept this, I fought back, trying to put hers out just to what seemed to put her in a more favorable position. About when my tongue was getting tired, she finally pulled back. "I can see the faint trail now," she announced. "I'll be ready to move when you're all ready."

_Damn, she's good, _I thought dreamily. It reminded me of the time in middle school when I was going out with a girl, and after a date of winning her stuff, she turned around and dumped me. I ran home and told my mom this and she tisked. _Always remember, _she had said_, men are the heads and women are the necks; they can make them look any way they wanted to._

I took that as good advice and tried not to like too much girls unless they really caught my attention. It no longer disturbed me when I saw others dating when I thought about the chances they could stay in a good relationship and get married. They were pretty close to zero.

I snapped out of my thoughts as Josh snapped his fingers in front of me. "Earth to Don. Earth to Don."

I looked at him and shook my head. Then I started quickly packing up my stuff. It felt awkward doing it, me being a little 'too ready', if you know what I mean. Once we gathered our stuff, we headed out. I stayed in the back with Josh. "You are one lucky bastard," he kept telling me. Considering he was getting free magical upgrades from Jane, I disagreed, but I stayed silent.

We went through many corridors and had many turns. Most of the monsters that attacked us were new to me and the others like mouths in the ground or moving deadly mushrooms, but it wasn't anything we couldn't handle.

A little while, Ariadne stopped before she held her hand. "What is it?" Thaila asked.

Ariadne looked back to us. "The arena is up ahead and we need to pass through it to keep going."

"Can't we just find another path around it?" Jane asked. "Since there's most likely other corridors in the area?"

"I wish it could be like that, but we cant," she responded. "It's the heart of the labyrinth, just like the last one. It may seem like paths will lead around it, but you'll always end back at the arena if you want to progress further getting out of here."

"Ok, so why is it so bad where we need to stop?" Josh asked.

"The owner of the ring is Antuaeus, a son of Poseidon and Gaea. When the Doors of Death were opened, I'm guessing Gaea allowed him back to this place. In the arena, he assigns 'victims' if caught in the labyrinth to fight their opponent to the death, who or whatever it is. The game is called Pankration." She turned around to look at us all. "Usually we can all try to fight through, but the stands are loaded with monsters, so it's not likely a good plan. He'll probably choose one of us at random, and there's no guarantee he'll let us pass through, even if we win. So what am I trying to say? Prepare to fight and stay alive."

We all nodded. Without my bow, I'd be useless with just my knife. That's when I started to count my lucky stars, if I had any, to please not get picked. And I did get picked, hoped that he offered weapons.

Once everyone was sure they were prepared for anything we walked threw the corridor. The entrance to the arena was caged with two snake women guarding it. "What isssss thisssss?" one of them asked.

"We'd like to move through Antuaeus's arena," said Ariadne with a stern voice.

"Hmm," she said as she looked among us. "I choossssse… you!" she said and pointed at me.

_What the freak, my lucky stars!_

My friends all looked at me uncomfortably, knowing I lost my bow and arrows. "Um, would it be ok if you choose someone else?" I tried talking. "I may not be the best entertainer then some of my friends."

The snake women shook her head. "My decccccesion is final! Either you go, or no one goesssss!"

I took a couple of deep breaths and nodded. Vanessa put her hand my shoulder. "Don, you don't have to do this. We can come back and one of us can do this." Her voice was tough like when I first met her and she was starring daggers at me.

I fought it off. "It's ok," I said. "I can manage, and we can't waste anymore time sitting. I need to do this."

She kept starring daggers into my eyes, but it wasn't working, and I knew it. "Isssss the boy fighting or not?" the snake women asked again. Vanessa squeezed my shoulder hard, then let go. "He's going," she said. Then my friends made way and I walked up to the snake.

"You can do this, bro!" Josh yelled. "We have faith in you!"

"Don't let us down, Don!" Jane said.

Vanessa came up to me and whispered into my ear. "Good luck," she said. Then she backed off.

The snake women lifted the cage and motioned me through. "You'll be nexxxxxt after the current battle," she said and closed the cage as I went through. The arena wasn't as big as I hoped it was in case they lended me a bow. It was circular with the space to just fit a RV, the Rv being the diameter. The ground was dirt and the walls were twelve feet tall with monsters cheering in the bleachers. Along the wall was a balcony with a fat sumo-size blob sitting in a fancy chair like in theaters in the old days.

Two girls that looked mixed with animals and bronze parts and looked a little pale. They were moving fast, clawing at each other and one momentarily trying to bite the other. At one point, one of the girls tripped the other. "Blood! Blood! Blood!" the crowd chanted as they all looked towards the sumo dude. He grew and evil smile and turned his thumb down. Then the girl attacked her on the ground, her teeth inside the neck. The girl screamed and she turned to golden dust. Everyone cheered as she bowed and left the arena next to me. On her way out, she gave a visious smile, showing her bloody teeth, and left.

_Where am I? _I thought. How does my life get so screwed up, it ends up here?

"Next!" yelled the sumo dude. I looked towards the snake women and she nodded. I slowly moved to the center of the ring as everyone starred at me. The sumo dude got up and leaned forward of the railing of the balcony. "And who," he said as he examined me, "… is this?"

Everyone was starring at me. I got nervous and turned to my friends. The were also looking at me. Ariadne smiled, which gave me the courage to go on. "I'm Don," I said, "and I'd like to passes through the arena with my friends."

The monsters in the bleachers crackled as the sumo dude looked at me. "I am Antuaeus, and this is my arena. If you'd like to pass, you will have to play the game… of Pankration!"

The crowd went wild as he said it with power. After the crowd died, he continued. "I will not promise you access through the ring if you do not entertain me well enough. Do you understand?"

I nodded weakly. Antuaeus then sat back down into his chair. "What weapon would you like? A sword? A flamethrower? An axe?"

"Do you have bow and arrows?" I asked.

From that, the whole crowd cracked up and laughed at me. I didn't really care. If I lived through this, I was eventually going to kill them soon anyways… maybe.

Antuaeus looked down with an amused smile. "My fighter, this is an arena. We would not even think of having such a weakling's weapon in this arena."

I sighed, knowing my chances of winning were now slim. I was now regretting not asking Vanessa showing me a few tricks here and there with the sword. "I'll… I'll have a knife then."

Immediately from the crowd, a knife flew threw the air and landed next to me. It was a little longer than mine and had multiple sharp points. I grabbed it from the dirt and pulled mine out, having one in each hand. "I'm ready."

Antuaeus stood up from his seat. "Let the games begin!"

The crowd roared as the cage on the far side slowly opened. Once the cage rose, there was dead silence. Then I heard a sharp hiss and a dinosaur/dragon came out and hissed. The crowd went loud again as it approached me. I may not now a lot about the Greek myths, but even I could tell I was starring straight at a Hydra. It quickly acted and spat green liquid at me. I jumped to the side as it landed where I was a second ago, burning the dirt until there was a hole in the ground.

_Acid. _The Hydra was able to spit acid. _My gods, why couldn't Josh get picked?_

I took a quick glance at him and I can tell that was exactly what he was thinking from his face. The Hydra hissed and lunged at me with its one head. I was about to slash of its neck until I remember when you cut it off, two more form for every cut. _Attack the body, _I thought. Easier said than done, I thought. The Hydra was quick and had acid and I was no close combat person.

I fought off the doubt and attacked back. I jumped along his side and tried to stab multiple times, but the Hydra dodged and constantly kept its front towards me. It went on for probably tow minutes of that until I made a mistake. On one of my last charges to stab, it dodged and spat acid at me. I dodged it and hoped around him. Once I was ready to make a jump, I step and slipped on mud. I glanced to see it was mushy mixed with a green color. I tried to get up fast, but the Hydra took its window. It spat acid at me again, and this time caught my left hand. I screamed and clenched it as the acid burned into my skin. Taking advantage of the other window, the slung its head and hit my stomach, knocking the wind out of me.

I flew across the arena, scraping my face and my legs from the impact. The crowd started to chant: "Blood! Blood! Blood!"

_No! _I thought, and tried to get up. It was useless, though. The pain was to much for me to even move. It was also _Well, this is it._

Then I felt a pain in my gut. Then my body felt like it was starting to burn. I yelled drastically as the pain went all through my body. Almost immediately did the crowd stop chanting. There was dead silence except for my yelling for one second, soon replaced by panic. "What is this!?" I heard Antuaeus call over the mass panic. I was on my knees looking down. I didn't really know what they were talking about until it became really noticeable for me: I was glowing.

All over me, I could barely see myself through the white light. It was getting too bright for me, so I closed my eyes and continued to yell. I could hear Thaila and Vanessa somewhere to my right. "Look away!"

As I continued to yell there, I noticed the pain was fading away quickly. I felt my hand starting to throb and sizzles. As dangerous as it was, I opened my eyes and gasped at what I saw. I was no longer wearing my clothes I had on. Instead I was wearing robes with brown sandals, almost like the Christian figure Jesus looked like. I looked around, trying to see monsters running around and panicking. Even the Hydra was running away back into its open cage.

After the pain was completely gone, I started to feel better, stronger. The feeling was like an adrenaline rush, only ten times better. I stood up, feeling whatever it was going through me, giving me strength, almost power. I clenched my fists and yelled at the top of my lungs, enjoying the sensation. When I did, everything went white. I couldn't even hear my own yelling. I close my eyes, almost blinding my self. It was so bright then, even closing my eyes, I felt like I was starring at the sun. That was it. The perfect words to describe what I was feeling. I felt like the sun.

Though the brightness only stayed for two seconds before it started to dim rapidly. I kept my eyes closed all the way until the light was completely gone. Dead silence. Keeping my eyes closed, I heard absolutely silence. I couldn't help fighting the curiosity any longer, so I cautiously opened my eyes.

The first thing I noticed were my clothes. They were the same I always had: my orange camp t-shirt with shorts. The Jesus clothes were gone and I started to wonder if I imagined it or not. The second think: I was exhausted. I felt like I ran a marathon without stopping. I was ready to immediately lay down and take a nap if I didn't realize the third thing. The third thing: there were no monsters. Anywhere. The snake women that were with my friends were gone. The cage was empty with no Hydra in it. Even Antuaeus wasn't in the balcony. The only living things in the arena were my friends. They were still looking away from me. "Guys?" I called out.

They turned around and gasped, observing the arena. "Th-they're all gone!" Josh exclaimed. The he looked at me. "How…how did you do it?"

I shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. Just glad I'm alive and we can keep moving."

Vanessa starred at me as if looking at me for the very first time. "You do realize what you did, right?"

I shook my head mystified. She started then choked back. Then spoke clearly. "You… you just showed your true form. That's one of the powers of the gods."

**Don is supposed to be a powerful demigod, meeting up with standards of Percy Jackson, being the top hero in his day. It made me realize that before, all he had was somewhat good night vision, so I gave him 'true form' as I'll call it. I will be willing to accept ideas through reviews of powers that go along archery, music, and light for Don and medicine, plaque, and poetry for Josh. Heck, even give me ideas for Vanessa as well, though I'm not to sure I'll give any to her. Hope you like this chapter. READ AND REVIEW!-Flappy741**


	13. Chapter 13: I get a Mound

**Sorry for the long wait. I just got Skyrim and it is **_**so **_**fun. It's hard to me to make this story with that distraction, but I don't mind. Plus, I can't really tell whose reading this story besides the people who reviewed, which isn't a lot. If I can get some suggestions for a better desc. of the story to get more people to read, that can boosts any authors motivation. But anyways, READ AND REVIEW!**

Chapter 13: I Get A Mound

I could have stood where I was for hours still trying to wrap my head around what was going on, but my tiredness came to me quickly. I crippled to my knees, just trying to keep my eyes open, but it was like lifting a full-grown maple tree (I've tried. It's hard). I stayed awake just to hear my friends run over to me and Thaila say "good job." Then I closed my eyes, unable to open them.

In my dream, I was at a beach. Ahead of me was a pier with a ferris wheel and extended over the sea was a restaurant. The water looked very mucky that which seemed to replace the presence on the water.

The Santa Monica Pier.

I loved the pier. I remember coming here with my mom many times before I met Josh. I remember coming here at night and everything would light up and I would stare at the lights forever they were that nice to me.

In front of me stood seven people. Four of them had Camp Halfblood shirts and another three wearing purple shirts reading 'Camp Jupiter.' One had sea green eyes and black, smooth hair. He was twirling a ballpoint pen in between his fingers and had his arm around a blond girl. The blond was leaning against him with a NY Yankees cap in one hand a long, celestial knife in the other. Another guy looked like an elf on a sugar rush. He had yellow toolkit around him and held a sphere in his hand. The last person with Camp Halfblood shirt was a girl who looked seriously pretty to me, even though she had uneven hair and no makeup, carrying a knife that looked familiar to me. Another blond dude wearing a purple shirt had his arm around her and a gold coin in between his fingers. Another in a purple shirt looked like an Asian teddy bear. The last was black girl with a hide helmet and a cavalry sword.

"So," the elf said, "This is the one for the next. Glad to see somebody to the eighties. Nice 'fro."

I blushed and started rubbing my hair, not knowing what to say. The pretty one hit him in the shoulder hard, then gave me a 'ignore him' smile. "I'm so sorry for Leo. He likes to divert conversations from time to time if he's nervous. Uh, are you ok?"

I was stepping back a little bit. "Uh, yeah. Who are you guys?"

The blond dude looked towards the others. "Jeez, after a hundred years, you'd think our legacy would still be alive."

"I'm sorry," I said, shaking my head. "I just got to camp and left it in almost less than two to three days. I'm not really known to the myths because of my mom."

The green eyed gave me a surprised look. _"Two days? _Even I stayed at camp a week or two before I left. So your on a quest, huh?"

"Um, yeah." I told the seven all about it. They were demigods, so they couldn't be trying to kill me. I started with Josh and I at the park to falling asleep.

"Wow," said the green eyed. "Hard to believe an Ares child actually looking good."

"I still thought," said the blond girl, giving the green eyed a look, "all the monsters went back to Tarturus when we closed the doors." She shrugged. "Guess not. To think Minos actually remade the Labyrinth…"

"Have you've been to Camp Jupiter yet?" asked the girl with the hide helmet.

I gave her a puzzled look. "Camp Jupiter?"

"Hazel, he barely learned any myths. I'd doubt he knows it," said the asian teddy bear.

"Which is why," the blond girl interrupting him, "we should start by introducing ourselves and explain why we're here." She bent down, looking at the blond dude at the end of the row.

He shrugged. "I'm Jason Grace, son of Jupiter."

"I'm Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite," said the pretty girl. Figures.

"I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena," said the blond girl.

"Percy Jackson, son of Poesidon," said the sea green eyed guy.

"Leo Valdez, son of Hephestus," said the elf.

"Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto," the girl with the hide helmet said.

"Frank Zhang, son of Mars," said the Asian teddy bear.

"We are of the Great Prophecy of Seven," they said all at once.

I stood there. I didn't know what that was, so I didn't know whether to feel honored or worried.

An awkward moment went by. "Look us up," said Leo.

"We're of the great prophecy before yours," said the girl, like it summed everything up.

"Um, why are you guys here?" I asked.

Leo grumbled. "That's what _I _asked before, remember?"

"We're here to tell him something. Isn't that obvious enough for the smart Greek?" Hazel asked annoyed.

"What?" I asked, though I wasn't really sure I wanted to know. When seven legends come to you, I'd doubt its for tea.

They all looked at me. "Don," Hazel said, "you are the one in the Great Prophecy. It has not started yet, which is fortunate for you. But it will not start until about four years. We are telling you now so you can prepare."

"Can you tell me what it is?" I asked. "If it's so important, won't you guys just tell me?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Prophecies are dangerous when they are known, especially before they come to pass. For example, if a prophecy stated that you'll die, wouldn't you try stuff to prevent?"

I froze. _I was going to die? So early?_

Percy saw my face and understood what I was thinking. "No, no, no! The actual prophecy doesn't state you'll die. Annabeth was using it as an example to try to explain to you. The point she's trying to make is that heroes attempt to fight against the prophecy, but how can you fight something that's destined to happen? Keep that in mind when you do Apollo knows what."

I nodded. "Alright. So what should I prepare for? Gaea? A titan? Giant?"

They all looked at each other. "We can't say anymore unless we want to break a promise to the Styx," Annabeth admitted. "I honestly didn't want to do this, but the others talked me into it." She gave me a serious look. "When summer ends at Camp Halfblood, Chiron gives the option of going to live with family or relatives, if he allows it, or to stay year round at the camp for training. Stay at the camp."

Blood rose to my head. "What!? I can't even pay a visit my mom or friends in California?"

Percy looked at me with sadness, as if he's been in my position before. "Come here, Don."

I walked up to him, looking down. Disobeying them to me was like disobeying gods, until I found out how important they really were. Percy held out his hand and placed it on my hair. "Feels just like a pillow," he said, "but never mind that." He closed his eyes and focused. At first, nothing happened. Then green light came from his hand. It didn't really make me feel anything. After a few seconds, he lifted his hand off. "I've given you the welcome of Poseidon. In the Poseidon cabin is a green fountain with water and golden drachmas. You can use them to send iris messages. You can send your mom a live chat across the country. Better?"

I nodded and looked up to him. "Thanks."

Then my vision started getting blurry. "Crap," Jason cursed. "We're breaking up. Before we do, I want to say that you can always contact through our friend and Hazel's brother, Nico."

"Wait," I yelled because of the blurriness. "Who's Nico? Where can I find him?" But the dream finished into blackness. I woke up with a hit against my chin. I opened my eyes to see me piggyback riding on someone. I murmured, "Josh?"

"Wrong person," Vanessa said. She gave me an extra boost to reposition me onto her. "You've been out for a while. How you feeling?"

I tried to move my arms, but they felt like they were in jello. "Weak."

"After you just sent who knows how many monsters to Tarturus? I'd be feeling a little bit better than that."

"Wrong weak."

I could see the corners of her mouth rise. "Just kidding. Just rest, or try to anyway. We still got a while to go, and with a guide, we won't be running into trouble anytime soon.

I nodded, and laid my head softly on her shoulder, forehead against her neck. Then I closed my eyes again.

**Normally, after something big as the dream, I'd cut off, but that would be **_**way **_**too short. I'm going to keep going. Enjoy! :D**

Ever had a moment when you're tired that it seems you blink and five minutes pass like trying to sleep in before having to get up before school? I tend to get those whenever I want the time to freeze. Riding on the back of Vanessa wasn't as comfortable as my bed, but the sweet smell of cinnamon from her hair made it easier to take my mind of the weakness. Before I knew it, I felt normal. After a minute of that feeling, we stopped. "The exit is just up ahead," Ariadne announced. "We can pop up anywhere in the house, so this is the stop where you guys get ready for an escape."

"How you feeling about now?" Vanessa asked.

I didn't want to get off, but I had no idea if her back was killing her from the position she's been in or not. Moaning, I slowly rolled off and rubbed my eyes. "Hey, the sleeping Gaea awakes! How you feeling today?" Josh asked in his normally loud voice.

"I've been better," I replied.

"That's almost the spirit. Ready to kick Minos's butt?"

"Sure. Got an extra bow with arrows?"

"Oh. Forgot about that." Josh rubbed his head. Then he looked towards Thaila and Phoebe. "Maybe one of you two have and extra bow with spare arrows Don can borrow?"

They shook their head. "Sorry Don, but we don't carry equipment for the fun of it."

"Here," Vanessa said as she unclipped her other sword than the two handed red and gave it to me. I took it by the hilt and clipped it onto my side. "Thanks."

"It's not what you're used to, but it's better than nothing, right?"

I nodded. I gave Ariadne thumbs up. She nodded. "Alright. Let's go."

"Wait," Jane warned, "shouldn't we move in quietly and stealthy?"

"With all the security my father has around the house, it's really pointless. You might as well try to move pass camera without being seen on it," Ariadne answered. "My father doesn't know I'm here with you guys. He thinks I left to someplace to deliver a message."

"What?" Josh asked bewildered. "He's never heard of email? Cell phones? Anything of the sort!"

Ariadne smirked. "My father hasn't really been in contact with the world since he's been reborn. I'd doubt he's heard of a _gun _before. But that doesn't mean to say he hasn't, period. I only made sure he hasn't discovered the stuff for my own sake."

"Thank god, you're not just another pretty face."

"Why thank you," she blushed. "Anyway, the moment I'm in, I'm going to act like I just got back, so don't be expecting any help from me. All ready? Alright…"

She turned around and moved forward. We came to the end of the maze, the entrance being red, wooden doors like to a dresser. Ariadne slowly opened them, to be revealed a closet with dresses and skirts hung and shoes at the bottom. She turned around again. "You'll be entering through my room. You should make a left down the hall, around the corner, and you should see the stairs."

We all drew our weapons. Gods, now I really wished I learned a thing or two from Vanessa or her brother. Now I was going to probably pay for it, if this didn't go smooth.

Ariadne slowly stepped into her room and laid on her bed. Thaila slowly put her foot in her room, but like Ariadne said, it was useless. The moment she put her foot on the floor, alarms as a police car went off. We booked it out of Ariadne's room. "Hey, stop!" I heard a guard say, but of course we didn't. We ran down the hall and around the corner. Some guards were waiting for us at the stairs. We turned around to find two more come up behind us. I turned to face the ones in the back, along with Vanessa. "Stop," said one of the guards up front. "Slowly put down your-." At this moment Thaila went up to the guard and hit his helmet with the hilt of her blade. Then the two guards in the back charged, but Vanessa stepped in front of me. Guard number one swiped at Vanessa at the head. She ducked and hit the back of his leg with her hilt. He crumbled.

Guard number two tried to come at me. I held up my sword, but Vanessa came to my defense. She slapped the guard's sword of target and kicked him in the stomach. The guard bent down and Vanessa swung over her body and banged his helmet. It vibrated violently, even after he fell to the ground, uncosious. By this time, Thaila, Phoebe, and the others were done on their side, and we didn't waste any time. We slid down the stairs and kicked down the door. We fled outside into the courtyard and around the mansion. On the yard were about eight hellhounds waiting for us. I swear as I looked into the bloody eyes of one of them, it looked just like the one I shot in the leg with an arrow. I gulped. It growled and charged along with the others. They all seemed to jump our group all at once, but I was ready this time. I swallowed and as the hound went airborne above me, I raised my sword and stabbed it. It yipped and turned to gold and black dust.

I stood frozen as the dust fell over me and smiled. With the revenge and satisfaction, I charged the other hounds as they were occupied with my friends. Soon it was the six of us with dust around us. They all looked at me as I had a triumphant smile on my face, but as for being on a hurry, my limelight was short lived. We ran towards the back. Luckily for us, the hot air balloon was there. For once, I thought we were actually going to make a smooth trip out of here, but of course I was wrong. From the balcony of the mansion, I heard Minos's voice: "Archers! The balloon!"

"Dammit!" Thaila yelled. She turned back to look at Minos with his cruel smile on his face. Archers, ten to twenty, ran in military style on both sides of Minos and drew their bows. "Hurry on!" Thaila yelled. I honestly didn't see why we could've went on without the balloon, but then I noticed patches of metal around it. Guess someone tried to shoot him from the air. I wondered why the archers even tried until I realized ropes nailed into the ground were holding down the balloon.

We ran. Thaila and Phoebe smoothly hoped in and started helping Vanessa and Jane in, but by then it was already too late. "Fire!" I heard Minos yell and along came with many "_TWING"s. _I made a desperate attempt and tried to jump in, but it seemed like this was a different carriage; the walls were at least twice as high and slippery than the last one.

Too late, the arrows flew and seeded the ground, also cutting the rope. Luckily, me and Josh saw order of importance and fled from the balloon to avoid arrows sticking out of is. Since plan A was gone, Josh went for plan B. As the balloon lifted into the air, Josh grabbed onto one of the dangling ropes and I grabbed his leg. I was now dangling onto Josh. "God dang it, Don!" he yelled. "Either I need to work out or you need to go on a diet! I can't pull myself up!"

"I'm only one-twenty!" I yelled back. "Last time I checked!"

We were now pretty high in the air, probably fifty or sixty feet now. "Hold on a little longer, Josh!" Vanessa yelled as she slid over as Thaila grabbed her legs. As soon as I started to relax, I heard Minos's voice, even from this height: "Archers!"

_What the freak!? _I thought. _No archer should be able to shoot this far!_

But apparently, the archers were an elite group. I didn't hear the twing, but I definitely saw the arrows. A whole flock of them zoomed towards us. Luckily or unluckily for us, the first arrow hit the rope Josh was holding onto and severed it. "Josh! Don!" Vanessa and Jane yelled as we fell. _Damn, _I thought.

"Is this how you thought you were ever going to die, Josh?" I yelled over the air as we rushed passes it.

"Speak for yourself!" he replied back. "I'm going to try to land on you so you'll break my fall!"

I rushed towards the grave below me as Josh hovered above me. Just as I started to say my prayers, I heard Josh yell, "what the Zuez?"

I couldn't see what Josh saw, but a second later, I saw movement at the corner of my eye below my legs. I turned my head as the head of the horse popped in front of me: the hippalectryon. Instinct took over me. I locked my arm around its neck and grabbed Josh by the back collar of his shirt. As I did this, the horse opened its wings and made a 'u'ie into the sky again. If we were going anymore faster, I wouldn't have been able to hang on. He flew up and gradually went slower. At one point, I felt like I was floating, and took advantage. I gave Josh a good tug on his shirt, turning him around. "Hang onto my waist!" That was all I had time to say before the horse gunned down. Over fighting the air again, I reached down so my head was next to the horse's ears. "Don't you think we should join the others?" I asked it. I looked into its eyes, and saw that this horse was blowing steam; out for murder. This was no normal horse: it was a battle one.

"Gods, make it stop!" Josh yelled as his eyelids were wide open, arms squeezing my waist.

The mansion came into view and Minos with his archer. Minos looked like he was enjoying thoughts of us two dead until he saw us. His face turned purple. "_WHAT!?"_

I drew my sword. "This is for Apollo, you monster!" As the horse came towards the balcony, all the archers ducked, giving me the option to choose my target. I chose the stomach. As the hippalectryon flew past him, I extended my sword. The sword cut right through his side to his stomach like cutting meat. After that, the horse booked it as Minos yelled curses towards us. I smiled and didn't look back.

It wasn't too soon until we found the balloon. As we flew next to it, I could see Jane was crying. Vanessa was knelt down comforting her as Thaila and Phoebe stood and watched. We hovered and waited for one of them to notice. After a minute, Vanessa looked up. First, she gave the impression of yelling at me then the impression of seeing the horse and being surprised, then smiled and shook her head. "You two," she said, "are the most luckiest people I've ever met."

**Finally got them out of the labyrinth and getting the hippalectryon! I'll be honest, before I started this story, I only imagined getting this far. And here I am! :D READ AND REVIEW!-Flappy741**


	14. Chapter 14: The Chosen One

**Ugh. I got a project for school about two weeks ago. It's not hard but tedious and time consuming. I'm practically done now, but it put me through hell how badly I wanted to get this chapter over with. Anyway, read and review! =D**

Chapter 14: The Chosen One

From the aerial view we all had, we were able to soon spot Denver and land in civilization (finally) around dawn. A little more time in the wilderness, I'm not sure I would've recognized the place. The idea of coming to order when we arrived: food. Ever since we've been out in nature, all we've been eating from meeting pigmies to now were nuts Josh brought along, Jane's eight family size bags of candy and chips, and meats hunted by Thaila and Phoebe. During the whole time, I tried not to think about how hungry we were the whole time. It was easy before, but now being an in place with restaurants, who's going to refuse? The mist was really helpful, too. Instead of seeing Bonnie(that's what I named the horse since it was a girl)'s wings, they saw a normal horse. Instead of people seeing a big heavy sword on Vanessa's back, mortals saw a big combat stick used for tricks and twirls. I am now thanking the gods there is such thing as the mist.

We walked into a Wendy's and after ordering, sat down and talked about our game plan. Bonnie refused to go in for some reason, so I told her to find me if she heard me whistle. "_Finally," _Josh said reluctantly, "actual_ food!" _

"Seriously," I agreed as we combined tables and chairs to make a big one. "I forgot how burgers and fries tasted, it's been so long."

"You're telling me," Jane said. "For me, its been years. Gods, after eating cranes and other weird stuff for years, this better be the best burger and fries in my life."

"Let's put that aside for later," insisted Thaila. Vanessa nodded her head in agreement. "Right now, we need to remake a plan. We found the hippalectryon. Now what?"

We all sat there silently. "Maybe she'll show us what we need in due time," Josh said. "Right now, our primary focus is finding Apollo and Artemis. To start, I'm going to share a dream I had while we were in the labyrinth. Is that cool with everyone?"

We all leaned in closer as he started to stare off. "It was a short dream, but I feel like it was important. I was at the Atlantic Ocean to start. Suddenly, I just flew up really high. I couldn't really see who I was really clearly, but I'm pretty sure I was Apollo. I was on a chariot with horses in the air. I don't know how fast I was going, but I was somehow able to tell I practically crossed the U.S. I was about to cross California until I got this…feeling or something. Whatever it was, I just felt like I needed to check out a cave below me. So I went down into the cave. Then it went black from there."

Vanessa snapped her fingers. "Wherever that is, that's got to be where they're being kept. Did you notice anything special about the place?"

Josh shook his head. "It just looked like a normal bear cave or something. Nothing really special about it."

"They've got to be in California somewhere," I said. "I bet if we get close, Josh will get the same feeling Apollo did. We should head there next."

They all nodded their heads in agreement. "Hold up," Josh said. "We still need to find out why dad sent the hippalectryon for us. I doubt it was for the extra hand. Plus, the prophecy said '_an ancient creature reveals the key that'll make or break your destiny.' _The hippalectryon has got to be what it meant."

"How about we split up," Vanessa said. "Thaila, Phoebe, and Josh can get a head start to California in the balloon and hopefully find it before we meet up with them. Jane, Don, and I can go to wherever this 'key' is and get it."

There were no objections. It was a good plan. Thaila and Phoebe would be the best to find it with their hunting experience and Josh to hopefully get that feeling. Besides, I don't think Josh or Bonnie liked each other. Just then the waiter came with our food and drinks. _"Thank Hecate,"_ exclaimed Jane. "That fast food was not fast."

0000000000000000000000000000000000

I honestly wanted to stay there and relax for at least twenty minutes, but we all got nervous about Bonnie. Luckily, she knew my signal for the cab whistle and flew down. It was dark, but few pedestrians gave us a few awkward and weird looks. Thankfully, they didn't say anything. We went out of Denver to Staunton Park where we left Midas's balloon. There we wished each other good luck. "And, hey," Vanessa said, "If you find the place, wait for us. No telling what could hold down a god and goddess."

"Yeah," Josh said in response, "and if you find anything cool or awesome, remember me. I always don't mind something extra."

"Wait," I said. "How will we be in contact if we don't have phones?"

"There's something called an Iris-message," Thaila explained. "You find a rainbow of any sort to start. Mostly recommended it's made up of the water vapors. Once it's there, say 'oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering' and toss in a golden drachma. If it disappears, that means she accepted it. Then say the person you want to contact, ideally me. After a few seconds, you should be able to see me. It's like a video chat." She dropped her bag and took out a plastic one in it filled with golden coins the size of big cookies. "Three should be enough, counting emergencies," she said as she counted three out. Then she handed them to Jane who put them in her magical bag.

"Alright, we're all set," Vanessa said. "May the gods be with us!"

"May the gods be with us!" we all chanted back.

I went up to Bonnie and patted her. She was strong. Her legs were beefed out and had thick sides. She snorted and looked at me, waiting. "All right girl," I said. "Take us to…wherever Apollo wanted you to take us."

She shook her head, her blond mane flying in the air. Then kneeled down so we can hop on. Luckily, Bonnie was big enough to carry three people, but that was her max weight capacity, due to space. How much she could lift was beyond my imagination.

I looked back at the other three. Thaila saw me starring and saluted me off. Then summoned a gust of wind that blew the balloon into the air sky high. "Well," I said, "let's go."

Bonnie whined then took off running. After getting to the point where I had to lock my arm around her, she jumped with grace and spread her wings. From there it was like riding an airplane. I heard Jane mumble behind me. "Gods, next time, you're getting the back, Vanessa."

She looked back. "Sorry, Jane. I'll keep in mind you don't like horses."

I looked back at the two of them. Luckily for her, Jane had robes to keep herself warm. I was shivering and hugging Bonnie really tight, but Vanessa…

"Are you not cold wearing spaghetti straps, Vanessa?" I asked, bewildered. It was twenty degrees Fahrenheit and she looked at me like it was perfect temperature. "I'm fine," she said. "It's probably just you. Here, let me feel." She moved her hands up my arm to my hands. When she got there, she tightened. "Gods, your hands are cold! Jane, you got gloves for Don?"

Jane shook her head. "I'll make sure to add that to my list. That's like the only piece of clothing I don't have. Sorry Don. Besides…you know…" she moved her hands in a hugging gesture, "I can't think of anything else."

I nodded. I came up with another idea, though. Usually when I sleep, I get hot. Don't ask why, I'd doubt Hephaestus evens know, him being the god of fire. I looked back towards Vanessa. "Vanessa, do-"

"No, I'm not holding your hands," she said quickly and crossed her arms. I looked her. "Um, that wasn't what I was going to ask."

She blushed. "Jeez, then what is it then?"

"Can you take the rein? I'm getting tired, and I'm not sure how long we'll be flying."

She starred at me like she was going to hit me as her black hair flew back with the wind. "You are _not _to snore or drool. You hear me?"

I nodded. "You have nothing to worry about. I don't even do that anyways when I normally sleep."

She scooted closer to the front and put her arms around the horse's neck. In this position, I was the meat in the sandwich of Bonnie and Vanessa. "Sleep dreams, Mr. Sunshine. I'll make sure you won't fall off."

_How could I? _I thought, but I didn't say it. I didn't know whether I was leaning forward against Bonnie or back against Vanessa, but I didn't care. I took me a little while to get to sleep due to the cold, but I somehow achieved it.

In my dream, I was in an old winter cabin. Three old women were in rocking chairs knitting. Normally, this wouldn't bother me except for the conversation:

"Ah, do you think the child would be prepared when his destiny comes to play?" questioned the grandma unraveling the yarn from a spool.

"The boy will be ready when his task comes, Clotho," crackled the second grandma. She looked at the yarn like trying to se a hidden picture. "Remember when you were asking the same questions about dear Luke Castellan? He was ready when his part came, no? The child will be the same."

"Besides, he will prove himself to be most useful to them, in one way or another," said the third. She took the string from the second and cut it with gray shears. Then she took another string, tied it into a knot, and then went to another string.

The first one chuckled, almost evilly. "You are the most cruelest sisters." They all did a laugh, then continued with their sewing. Then the scene changed. I was in a purple, black, and red vortex. In front of me, the giant that took the twin gods knelt. Somebody behind me spoke, but I couldn't move or talk, strangely. "Did he take it by now?"

"No, my patroness," said the giant. "Though he will come after making a short stop. Then we can hold him prisoner and make a few adjustments."

"Well done," the voice said behind me. "I will not have this boy be a threat to me, even after I awake."

"Where should we keep this…'chosen one,' when we have him?" asked the giant.

"I will take care of that. Focus on the capture."

The giant nodded. Then stood and grinned evilly. As he turned around, many thoughts came to my head. _Do they want Josh or me? _I was at least smart enough to tell they wanted one of us, but wasn't sure. Then who were those old ladies? And again, whom were they talking about? I probably would've stayed there asking myself until the voice came into my head. "I will not have you ruining my plans," said the voice. "I have infinite patience, but I will not be lured asleep. Not fully. Not again."

I wanted to scream who the heck was this person until I awoke with Vanessa's hand on my shoulder. "Don," she said. "Wake up, dang it."

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. Bonnie was still flying above water, but an island was coming into view. "Are we here _already_?"

"_Already?"_ Jane exclaimed. "We've been flying for an hour. Do you know how long that is when you want to get there?"

"I know, right?" Vanessa agreed. "Why can't time be slow when doing something fun and time fly fast during something you hate? Whichever god or goddess put that in the world, I am never making them a sacrifice." Then she turned around back at me again. "By the way, you're a _really _heavy sleeper. You sure you don't have Morpheus blood in you, too?"

"As sure as I'll ever be," I responded. I hugged Bonnie really tight again. Unfortunately, the effect of getting warmer while asleep doesn't have a carry over effect. "Do you girls know where we are right now? I mean, besides the island."

"Best guess is in the Pacific. I noticed we did pass the Santa Monica Pier," reported Vanessa. The mentioning of the pier brought my mind to the dream with the members of the Prophecy of Seven. Already, with my luck, I can tell whatever's going to happen to me in this place was going to be related to the dream. The island was big, but wasn't your average paradise place. The place looked unhabituated from where I was flying. No animals, until we landed. At first, I couldn't see, just blurriness as if looking down a long street on a hot day. After we passed it, I was proven wrong. There were red cows grazing around. In the middle of the cows' grazing area was a temple with white marble columns supporting it. To describe it shortly, if the dining pavilion at Camp Halfblood had a roof, it would like this.

Bonnie flew down at the base of the temple and we hopped off. "Awesome," I said randomly. "My dad having his own personal island. Wonder how he got it."

"It was probably given to him since the moving from Greek from U.S.," stated Vanessa. In Greek, the island of Delos was sacred to Apollo since that was the island he was born on. Guess this is new island."

We went up the steps under the roof. All on the ceiling were pictures of symbols of Apollo: the sun, a music symbol, medicine, mosquitos and rats (probably for plaque) and a bow and arrow. In the middle of the temple on a pedestal was a golden bow with a golden quiver. It made me nervous. Either my eyes were playing an illusion on me, or I swear the bow had a black mist around it or something. On the pedestal was also a note. I walked up to it and picked it up to read it, but it was all in another language, most likely ancient Greek.

I cursed myself. "Do you know how to read ancient Greek, Vanessa? I don't know squat."

Vanessa just shook her head, but Jane ran up and snatched it from me. "Oh, I've been practicing!" she squeaked. She calmed herself then cleared her throat:

_Don,_

_You are now ready_

_To fulfill your destiny_

_Take the bow, my sun_

Jane looked at the paper more carefully, then all around. "Huh," she said, "That's it. You would think you dad would spell 'son' right instead of the burning ball of fire."

"And tell me what my destiny is," I muttered. I looked at the bow again. There was a mist clearly there to me, but whether my friends saw it or not, they gave no worry about it. I took a deep breath. _I hope I'm not making a HUGE mistake, _I thought. I took a deep breath and grabbed the bow. Instantly when I touched, the mist exploded like a smoke bomb with strong wind. I closed my eyes to prevent the force from stinging my eyes. Seconds later, I felt a huge burn on the under part of my forearm. I glanced at it again before closing my eyes, but I saw what was happening. A triangle, almost like the triforce symbol of Zelda, except the inner triangle was smaller. At the bottom of the big triangle were three dots, one in the center and the two in the corners. A wind like pattern was attached to the right corner of the triangle. All of this was in black. ( )

My eyes grew watery, not knowing whether it was due to the burn or the force of wind against my face. "Don!" I could here the girls' yell, but they sounded distant. The burn was painful, as if a hot steaming iron was against it. I started to hear chanting in my head of the three grandmas: _**The chosen one has accepted his destiny! **_It was said in ancient Greek, but I was still somehow able to understand it anyways. I started to yell. Then when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I felt a tug in my gut. I went to my knees and doubled over…to see myself glowing white. _Thank god, _I thought as the pain started to subdue. I continually glowed brighter, but I stopped the yelling, even if the sensation was incredible. After when it went so bright I had to close my eyes and my 'Jesus' clothes disappeared, I sat there. The words of the grandmas seemed to be echoing through my head like my head was a hall. Another feeling I had too: I felt empty. Not empty as in needing of food, but as if my body was hollow.

"Don!" Jane cried. "Are you alright? What happened?" The girls rushed over to me and stopped when they saw my arm. "Dear Zues…" Jane dropped her bag and rummaged through it. She took out a plastic zip lock bag with ambrosia. "Here," she said, "This should help."

"It won't help," Vanessa said. She was observing the symbol on my arm with lots of interest, almost with fear. "Look carefully, Jane. It's burned into his arm. No amount of ambrosia or nectar will get rid of that. But Don, are you okay? You look like you're afraid of something."

I was glad she asked that question. "No," I responded. "Just confused. Do you know this symbol?"

Vanessa starred at the burned picture, like deciding whether or not to say something. Just when I was about to ask her that question again, she answered. "Are you aware of what the Fates are, Don?"

I shook my head. She explained: "The fates are what you would probably say the embodiment of information. They are three sisters who decide when someone will die and how long they'll live. They usually decide this by cutting string or yarn that represent how long someone will live. That symbol on your arm…that's their symbol. You're the chosen one of the Fates."

I starred at the golden bow. It had golden string and a black smooth grip and arrow rest. Its quiver had three arrows, each different. One was pure gold with an extremely sharp tip. Another had an arrowhead that was less sharp, but a cylinder shaped tip. The last looked like it was carrying a bomb. "But what does it mean to be the 'chosen one'? I know you know."

She looked nervous, and almost white. "Some stuff is not good to know. Trust me when I say this. Just let it go for now. Right now, we need to get in touch with Thaila." She turned around walking out of the temple, Jane following her. I was now a little upset. I didn't want to drop it. They knew something like how my funeral was going to be planned. I wanted to press the subject, but keeping in mind Vanessa was the daughter of Ares, I grumbled and caught up with her.

Finding a mist was no problem. Jane went through her bag and pulled out a spray bottle. She explained she also did Iris-messages to get the magical items she had for her tiny shop. Vanessa took out a drachma from my bag and bent down in front of the bottle Jane was constantly spraying. "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering." She flipped the coin at the water, but instead of flying through the water, it disappeared. "Show me Thaila Grace daughter of Zues."

The image shimmered, then became clear. Josh was standing in the balloon way in the air. Thaila and Phoebe were curled up with their heads in their knees. "Josh!" Vanessa yelled.

Josh was taken by surprise. He swung around, hitting his hand against the inside of the carriage. "What the-" he panicked until he looked at us. "My gods!" he said. "You had to yell? Jeez, why pick up another way when you can just terrify!"

Thaila lifted her head so fast, it was like a zombie in a horror movie. She instantly scanned her surroundings and found us in the air. Well, from what it seemed, our message was in the air. She stood up and leaned a little bit over the carriage. "What's happened?"

"Not to much," I said. "I found a temple sacred to my dad, I got a new bow, and got a symbol burned into my arm." I held up my arm so hopefully they can see. Thaila's eyes widened. "Is that-"

"Supposedly, I'm something called the chosen one of the Fates, according to Vanessa," I interrupted. "But besides that, nothing else. What about you? What's happened on your side?"

Thaila was still looking at my arm as still trying to take in what I said. She snapped out of her gaze. "Nothing. We've been flying, but Josh still hasn't felt anything yet. We plan to set down and search if he doesn't feel anything."

"We need a rally point," Vanessa put in. "Where are you guys right now?"

"We're going to be settling on Piute Mountain. Do you know how to get there?" Thaila asked.

"Bonnie should know," Jane stated. "He knew how to get here. Almost all pegasi know where everything is."

"Wait, wait, wait," Josh interrupted. "First of all, what does it mean that Don is chosen by the Fates, what is a piute, and are you serious pegasi have a GPA in them?"

Thaila turned around and started lecturing him. That's about when our connection was cut off. Jane stopped squeezing her bottle. "Gods, I think I grew new muscles in my fingers. Next time, your doing it, Don." I shrugged then whistled for Bonnie. Out of the sky, Bonnie flew down right in front of us and snorted. I walked up to her and ran my hand down her mane. "Hey, girl. Can you take us to Piute Mountain, in California?"

She snorted again, the knelt down. I hopped on with Jane making sure she was behind me. Vanessa hopped on back. Bonnie, seeing we were ready, ran then jumped into the sky. I took my golden quiver and slung it onto my back, putting my bow away there with it. During all that time, I was still killing myself with the same question: _What does it mean to be chosen? What? What? ..._

**Yeah, when the time comes, that'll be explained in the future. And I know the story seems it's going to end short, but I promise you I have a few more things up my sleeve to write. Message me on what you guys think about my story, please! I want to know if I'm going the right way with this. Thank you! READ AND REVIEW!-Flappy741**


	15. Chapter 15: Help of Aphrodite (not real)

Chapter 15: Help of Aphrodite (not really)

It took us a while for us to Piute Mountain, so I tried to kill time by talking to Vanessa and Jane and tried to learn more about them. It was the only thing that really kept me from thinking about what it means to be the chosen one of the Fates and the Great Prophecy, at least that's what I got from the ones of the Prophecy of Seven in my dream. "I don't think I ever asked you guys this question, but what are your last names?"

Jane nudged me. "Aren't we bored here. My last name is Waters. There's really no story why, unfortunately. I'd like one." She looked back towards Vanessa. "What about you?"

"Stem," she said. "No story to it, either."

There was a moment of silence. "Dang, that conversation came and flew a little to quickly," I said. "Umm…oh! What exactly happened that got you to the pigmy camp?"

Her smile turned into a frown. "It's something I don't like to talk about, but if you _really _want to know…"

"That's o.k. You don't tell us if you don't want to," I said.

She lifted her head. "No, actually. I want to tell somebody." She looked up towards the sky as if it were apart of her memories. "I was born Colorado, where you guys found me. My father was an entertainment magician like the pulling a bunny out of your top hat or card guy. I'm pretty sure that's what attracted Hecate, he was that good at it. At first, my father was happy to have me, but as I grew, things got worse. I was saying weird stuff like chanting or saying creepy stuff in my sleep, or that's what my dad said. I was also attracting monster's attention because of my random outbreaks of magic that blew up stuff like the crabs we ran into earlier. He didn't know how I was doing it, but he didn't like it. I could hear him calling me a freak behind my back. I tried my best to impress him, but he's a real slob. At one time, I accidentally blew up his car, and he let it lose. He started to threat me as if he was going to chain me until I stopped. I got scared and ran. That's when I met the pigmies after running away into the woods. I was really glad I met them since they understood about demigods. Then after a few days, I heard my dad died due to a heart attack."

She was still looking into the sky and tears started to come from her eyes. I wanted to comfort her and make her feel better, but not having a tragic backstory like that, I couldn't relate. Hearing her story, I started to think how fortunate I was able to do stuff with my mom for so long. I don't know how I haven't ran into any monsters at all during that time, but I was counting my lucky stars for her. "Wow," was basically all I could say. "I'm sorry."

Vanessa put her hand on her shoulder. "Almost all demigods have a rough start. I read that Annabeth Chase of the seven had a rough start like that, but father threatening to kill is kind of extreme."

Jane rubbed her eyes with her arm and tried to smile. "So what about you? Didn't you have a rough start of some sort?"

She shook her head. "I'm one of the lucky ones. I was born in Maine and brought down by my mom. Luckily, she knew what I was and made precautions around me and got me to camp when I was seven."

"What was your mom like?" I asked. "For you to be so different from your other siblings at camp, I can't really imagine her except for being the total opposite of Ares."

She glared at me. "She was a fighter in the Sabadorian War. Remember, the one with the discovery of the four-hundredth thirteenth element? And unlike most people in the army, she was really nice. She just knew how to kill. That's all I'm saying for now."

I nodded. "I see, I see…" I would have told them about my mom, but that was when we came to Piute Mountain. We found the other three had already made camp and Phoebe was taking a watch around a campfire. She got up as Bonnie landed and help us get set up (us=Vanessa and Jane) for the night as well. But before we wnet to sleep, I still wanted to press one topic. "C'mon, Vanessa," I pleaded. "What does this mark on my arm mean? Why is it so important I don't know?"

She stopped in front of her tent and turned to look at me. "Trust me, if we were to tell you, you would be a whole new person. It's not something I want to share. Now go to bed."

Blood rose to my ears. "Fine, then! Be that way!" I took by bow and quiver from next to my bag. "I'm going out to calm down, Phoebe. If I'm not back by the end of your shift, come looking for me."

She starred at me as if debating to actually come for me or not. After a glare off, she shook her head. "That's not a good idea," Vanessa said.

I was upset now. "Going to stop me?"

She froze. I realized I just baited her and try to recover. "Sorry," I said quickly. "I just-"

"Go, then," she said. "If you get lost, I'm not looking for you." And with that, she went into her tent. I stood there thinking what an idiot I was, but then again, she just _couldn't _tell me what being the 'chosen one' meant. I took one last look at the embers near the fire pit Phoebe was sitting next to. Then I headed off.

I went a mile or two north down the mountain before I stopped. It was about two or three 'o' clock now judging from the moon. I climbed up a tree to the balcony area of it until I had a goo view of the stars. Once again, I saw a girl with a bow in a running position in the consolation. Seeing how bright it was compared to the other ones, it must have been fairly new. I couldn't shake the feeling that it was a symbol or message from the world. The only problem was to determine what type of message was it. _Don't give up being an archer? Keep moving, even through hard times? _I tilted my head to see where she could possibly be running. It wasn't much, just over hills and a mountain from my view.

That's when arguing shook me from my thinking. If I wasn't holding on to the tree branch, I swear I would've been broken by the time I got down to the ground. I tried to look around, but the leaves were blocking my view of where the voices were coming from. I slowly and quietly climbed down the tree and peek. The first think that caught my eye was the woman. She was beautiful, gorgeous, hot, etc., all of those words combined. She had long brownish blackish hair with a red rose in it to her right. She was white with brown eyes and was wearing a white skirt, almost see through able. She also wore golden jewelry and golden slippers. The guy she was arguing with wasn't wearing anything except a wrapping around the waist. He was also carrying a bow with a quiver. He also had…white wings?

I tried to listen into their conversation more carefully, but they were talking in low voices, and I didn't want to risk of being seen. After two minutes, the winged dude finally flew away, leaving the lady alone. I bit my lip, and walked towards her. "Umm, hi there," I said. She turned towards me with no expression on her face. "Great. Another demigod wanting lessons on how to play the game."

_What? _"Um, I'm a night hunter," I lied. "Are you okay? Who was that guy?"

She exhaled deeply. "Oh, just my son. He is high lust level, and I'm not really a good person to contain that."

_I can see that, _I thought as I observed her. I swear, she was the hottest model.

She suddenly got an annoyed look on her face. "What was that?"

I suddenly backed up. "I didn't…say anything."

"Uh," she said like I was a pain, "I swear to that son of a-"

As quick as lightning, a huge arrow zoomed from the trees and hit her on the back. She stumbled onto the ground. "Hey!" I yelled to where the arrow came from, but I couldn't really see through the thick leaves. I ran to her aid and gently pulled out her arrow. "Are you-" I stopped as I observed the arrow. Just carrying the arrow, I started thinking of romantic stuff: chocolates, candles, and other stuff. I immediately threw down the arrow to lastly notice the arrowhead was shaped like a heart. The second think that occurred to me: the lady wasn't bleeding red. She was a bleeding golden liquid. And that's when it hit me: who the lady was, who the guy was, and what just happened. And if I was right…

The lady turned and looked at me in the eyes. Then her flce looked like she flew from cloud whatever to over cloud nine. "Aw, thank you, you cute Adonis!"

Yep…it happened. At first, I didn't know what to do. Was I lucky? Unlucky? Many guys would think they scored heaven, but considering her and Ares's relationship…not good. And on top of that Vanessa being Ares's son was a negative bonus. I wrapped her arm around my shoulders and helped her up. "C'mon. Maybe my friends Josh or Phoebe could help with that wound."

She smiled attractively. "I don't need anyone else except yours."

"No, you do," I insisted.

00000000

It was very difficult to get to the campsite with her flirting with me every three steps. If only Ares wasn't dating her, I would be enjoying this. Just my bad luck. I started to wonder what Aphrodite did or said to make Eros mad.

It was dusk when I finally got back. When I got there, Vanessa was there looking into her sword. "Want to help me, Vanessa?"

She turned towards me with first anger. "Where the Ares were-" she stopped as she saw Aphrodite. She was speechless and her face was priceless. "Who's-"

"Aphrodite," I said. "Mind doing me a favor? Can you pray to your dad that Eros shot her and nothing went down?"

"Yet," Aphrodite threw in as she got awfully close to me, almost moving against me. I had to move away a little, even though it was _extremely _hard to.

She was still looking at Aphrodite, speechless. What I said hadn't registered until a few seconds. "S-sure. Just let me call everybody back." She walked up to Jane's bag and took out a tiny orange pistol, or flare gun. She shot up and a purple blast came out of it.

It took a few minutes until Josh arrived. "Finally!" he said as he ran up the mountain and caught his breath. "Where were-" then he saw Aphrodite. Once again, another priceless face. "hubuduh hubuduh hubudud… who's this?"

Aphrodite looked at him. "Josh, that should not be the first thing you ask. It's more romantic if you introduce yourself first?"

"Huh?"

"Aphrodite," I said quickly. "She got poisoned by Eros's arrows. Will you be able to tell how long this poison will be in her?"

"Why doesn't she just leave or have Ares pick her up or something?" he asked.

Aphrodite laughed lightly. "And be away from my handsome devil? Think before you speak, Josh."

"Yeah, what she said," I agreed. "Now before you ask another one, come tell me how long she's going to be like this."

He stepped up to her and laid his hand on her forehead and felt her pulse. "Oh, jeez," he said, which was not what I wanted to hear. "She must've been hit with a pretty big arrow. Poison will probably be there, I don't know, two or three days maybe?"

Just then, Phoebe and Thaila came. "What the?" We quickly gave them the short version of my experience in the night. "Ah, Thaila Grace," Aphrodite chided. "I don't think we ever had an actual talk. Your outfit is fair, but adding a blue highlight in your hair will make you really stand out. Oh, and it's unfortunate you chose the path you did. You would've made such a great tale."

"Um…thanks." I could tell she didn't refer that to the last thing Aphrodite said. I didn't know what happened, but knowing this is the goddess of love, she was probably talking about joining the hunters of Artemis.

Awkward silence. Luckily, Josh knows how to break them. "So we're here and Don got whatever he got. We still need to find them, and I haven't gotten that feeling like in the dream I had. Any ideas?"

Just then, our discussion was cut short by a roar. We looked down the steep mountain we were on, but couldn't see anything. Aphrodite looked around then looked like she got an idea. "You know, I would be much more of a help if I were doing something else." With that, she snapped her fingers and then started to glow. "What?" I asked. "Wait!"

But wherever she was doing, she didn't stop. We looked away as she revealed her true form. When the brightness was gone, she was as well. But after that, I had gotten a strange feeling. More as if I was… I couldn't explain it, but I knew something was different.

John snorted. "So much for not leaving her handsome devil. Hopefully it wasn't the noise that scared her off." We walked over to a cliff and it was not a good view. At about the bottom of the steep climb were multiple hellhounds, thirty at the least. On top of that to make it worse, there was a huge bull with man legs and an axe. "The minotaur," Thaila muttered. "I could've sworn I put him down yesterday. Hey, ugly! Didn't you die already?

The bull, not wanting to be reminded of this, roared and shook his meaty fists. Then he roared again and the massive wave of hellhounds came running up the steep climb. "Dang," I said, pulling out my bow. "At least I'll be of some use this time."

With that, we counter-attacked. Basically, all of us except Vanessa were at the top shooting arrows, or for Josh, random medical supplies. Vanessa charged with her big bronze sword and started hacking. I kept pulling arrows out and shooting them, and it never really occurred to me until the end that I had endless arrows.

The amount of hellhounds were a lot more than thirty. By half a minute, we must've killed sixty, but they still kept coming, along with the Minotaur, who slowly made his way up to us. "They just keep coming," I complained. "It's like an army of dogs."

"Keep firing," Thaila reassured. "They'll go down eventually." She sounded she was also trying to assure herself. I shrugged and grabbed for an arrow. But instead of grabbing a sharp golden one, I grabbed the type that looked like it was carrying a bomb. I figured what the heck and shot. The moment I let it fly, a screeching sound went over the mountain as it flew into the enemy lines. When it landed, a really sharp noise came out where I flinched. Multiple hellhounds blew to dust, and most of them around were dazed, that made an easy kill for Vanessa. _Oh, heck yes! _I thought as I drew for another one again.

We held our line pretty well. The Minotaur, smarter than he looks, saw what was happening and roared. The hellhounds stopped advancing and turned. Then they scurried off. The Minotaur gave _us_ one _I will squash you like a pancake latter_ look and slowly stepped back into the shelter of the leaves of the trees.

"Wow," Jane said. "That would've went a lot faster if Aphrodite was here. Where the heck was she needed more than we are now?"

All of us looked at each other, wondering the same thing. "We shouldn't stay here," Phoebe said, and we all looked at her. Being so used to her being quiet, I forgot she was human enough to talk. "Phoebe's right," Thaila backed her up. "We can't wait for another attack. Six demigods attracts the monsters _way _to fast. We need to move."

"Yeah," Vanessa agreed. "They were probably hunting us or defending something. Which means we're close to wherever Apollo and Artemis are being held. We need to search."

"Let's check that mountain," I randomly put out there and pointed to a mountain to the North.

"What makes you think that's the one?" asked Josh. "Are you getting a feeling like I did?"

"No," I said. "My reasoning is weird and very unlikely, but how about we just head there as we think?"

No objections. Instead, they all went to pack up and grab their stuff. I sighed, considering how long has it been since we stared. Losing track of time, It's probably been five or six days, maybe seven. I was getting desperate. Plus, my reasoning for choosing that mountain was because that was the one I saw the hunter in the stars running to. Considering my bad luck, I highly doubt it was it, but it was worth a shot. Third, I knew I was right. Wait, back up. _I_ don't know if I'm right, but _Aphrodite _who I finally realized her whereabouts, knew I was right. Now there was one thing I couldn't understand yet. I know of no story or legend of a hero that can host a god or goddess. So… how the heck was I hosting Aphrodite?

**Bad chapter in my opinion since the events went too short, but the next one I aim for 5,000 words. Total, I aim for the story to be at least 60,000 words. I'm getting close, but that doesn't mean I will rush this story. This is for **_**you**_** guys, not **_**me**_**! For getting 800 views so far, making this story was worth it! Thank you, viewers! **** READ AND REVIEW!-Flappy741.**


	16. Chapter 16: Reenactment of a Rescue

Chapter 16: _Reenactment of a Rescue_

Of course, we didn't even make it halfway towards the mountain before we ran into trouble _again. _We were running in or 'six on a di' position like last time, being as cautious as we could. Meanwhile, Thaila was giving instructions. "Most likely," she started off, "they have a squadron of monsters around the god and goddess, so we'll have to split up into three groups of two. Three demigods is at the most to not get attention, but they'll be expecting us, and a head on assault is not a smart decision."

"You want to come with me, Jane?" Josh asked so quickly. I fidgeted. "Um, Josh-"

"Sure," she said. "I can probably get us around without being spotted, unless they have something to prevent that." Then she looked at Josh. "How would you like to be my first geuni pig?"

Josh almost tripped on his two feet. "Wh-what am I doing? I'm not like being a decoy for you and turning into a giant or anything, am I?"

Jane lit up. "That's a wonderful idea for a potion! I could try one of those. Thanks for the idea, Josh, but no. I have camouflage potion I've been meaning to test out, but the pigmies aren't really eager too help me out. Would you help me, please?" She batted her eyelashes. Normally, I'd find that unnecessary…unless the pigmies had a good reason why they weren't too eager to help out. Josh's face went red. "S-sure. As long as there are no side effects to it or anything."

Jane kept quiet, like I thought she would. "Um, maybe one or two…"

They started talking in their own conversation, along with Thaila and Phoebe. I didn't wanting to feel a loner with no talk buddy, so I tried to talk with Vanessa, praying it wouldn't go like last time. "So I guess I'll be pairing with you, Vanessa." She just kept looking towards the ground and nodded. "Ok, I'm sorry I went out and said what I did. I shouldn't have done that, and evidentially, I paid the price. I was just worked up from not knowing what being the chosen one means for me." She didn't say anything still. I didn't know whether she was giving me the silent treatment or what not, but I pressed on. "You're not upset that your dad's girlfriend is momentarily poisoned, are you?"

She shook her head and continued to look at the ground. After a while, I was about to give up with her until she finally spoke up. "If it weren't for being like my mom, I would _not _be saying this, but I was _almost _worried for. I was somewhat relieved that you came back, but just because you're the chosen one. If you weren't, I wouldn't care if my dad blew you up."

_Wow. Was that supposed to make me feel better or worse? _I put my hands up in surrendering position. "Let the world witnessed I tried to fix the bridge."

She didn't responded, instead gave me the silent treatment again. I decided to be patient and wait until we got to the mountain. I had no idea what the others were talking about, nor did I care. I tried to relax and enjoy myself. I looked at the mountain again, which didn't seem to have changed. I started to think about something else until that little fact echoed in my head. _The mountain didn't seem to have changed. _Instantly, my guard went up. As I passed a tree, I went up and snapped so it was dangling loose. Then I went on.

After a while again, like I thought, I saw the branch dangling loose. Positive we were in the trap of those time crabs again, I stopped. "Guys!" This time, Josh did trip on his two feet. He flew and rammed into the ground. The others skidded to a stop and looked at me. "What?" Josh mumbled.

I pointed up towards the tree branch, dangling and swaying from side to side. "I broke this probably twenty meters back." Instantly, they got the message. Josh moaned again from annoyance. "God, those things are annoying. Why don't they go somewhere else and repopulate in like Canada? I mean, they have all the time in the world and all."

"That was a bad one," I told him. "Obviously, you didn't pack any comics with you, huh?"

"Who'd ever think I would miss them so much?"

Jane shook her head. "While being so close to our goal, I am _not _doing what I did last time. Don, can't you go god again or something?"

"While they're still hiding? Probably better to lure them out first before I try that. And even then, I'm not sure that I even can again without getting tired, if I don't pass out this time." I said that truthfully, but untruthfully. I knew, and don't ask me how, that I was hosting Aphrodite. If I did it, would I get as tired as fast, much less with luck at all? Too much to hope for. "The best I can do is my sonic, I will now call them, arrows. Other than that, no promises."

Not smart of me to say that. The enemy not waiting for us to get tired since they know we know they're there, the crabs came out again. Jane muffled a quick scream as if remembering our last encounter. Fortunately, there weren't as many as last time, which is to say, there was probably fifty of them. Unfortunately, they weren't alone. Overhead, birds were gathering around and squawking at them. Normally, this wouldn't worry me since I'm an archer, a bird's natural enemy, but these looked metallic.

Vanessa cursed under her breath. "Stymphalians. Thaila, do you think you can do your 'daughter of Zeus' card against them?"

Thaila looked up, then shook her head. "It wouldn't hurt them, as much as I wished. Best I have to say is stay away from getting hit from their feathers."

"What do you mean?" Josh asked while he was throwing surgical knifes at them. "Can they throw them?"

"Yeah, and some of them also have poison on them. Get hit, and you'll be hallucinating for a while."

This threw my guard up. Taking out sonic arrows, I started lobbing them at the sky, seeing the birds as the bigger threat. The sound blast was useless as they just sat on their branches and looking at me like I was mocking them. Then they swooped down, their sharp metallic beaks like darts and me being the target. I ducked and rolled as a squadron of them swooped at me, barely missing. I let my nature senses kick in. There was no wind blowing, five birds, and down to about thirty crabs now. We stood a chance if I didn't force myself to go god.

Then, of course, the world screws me over. All of a sudden, Josh crumbles to his knees, groaning. "Josh!" Jane yelled over her blasts from her wand. She tried to go to him, but the stymphalians weren't giving her the opportunity. He moaned loudly, feeling his stomach. "Not feeling too well."

"What!?" I said with astonishment and anger. "Out of all the times you get sick, out of all the places and occasions, you get sick _now_?"

I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut. Right after I said that, another wave of crabs came out down the trees, another fifty, adding up to about seventy now, all crawling towards Josh. I cursed and kept trying to reduce the number of crabs with my sonic arrows, but the birds were defending them. Josh tried to get up, but to no avail and fell again. "Dude, if you're going to vomit, at least do it at the crabs," I suggested.

He lightly nodded. He looked towards the crabs. Then he released it all out: a sonic blast of force came racing out of his mouth like the wind speed of a tornado. All the crabs racing towards him flew back into yesterday past the trees and out of sight. For a moment, we all looked at him, forgetting we were in battle. "What was that?" Vanessa asked.

Josh shook his head, clearly mystified, then covered his mouth again. "Aim at the birds!" Vanessa yelled quickly as she sidestepped out of his way. He looked up, did gaging motions like he was choking on air, and did another sonic blast. The force was so strong, just standing next to him made me recoil a little bit. Two of the birds not paying attention got hit and flew like the shot put from a cannon. I stared at him in amazement, then snapped out of it. "C'mon!" I yelled, "let's finish them!"

Apparently, the crabs were smart enough to know that they didn't stand a chance and started crawling away as the other three birds flew towards the direction of the mountain. We fought until there was no more in sight. Then we attended to Josh. Jane was about to bend down and rub his back until his mouth filled again and we stepped back. Then he blasted another wave of force in front of him, then he started breathing heavily. "I feel better now," he winced. "The only time I got sick, I felt better after I did that."

"Well!" I exclaimed and patted him on the back. I couldn't help but smiling. "Looks like I'm not the only one with awesome god powers! Way to go man!" I held up my hand and he slowly slapped it. "Th-the ambrosia…"

"On it," Vanessa went through his bag and pulled out little brown squares. She gave them to Josh. As he ate each one, he seemed to be more relaxed, and he crazily grinned. "Still standing up to your standards, Don."

"Um, guys," Thaila interrupted, "we still need to hustle. You can still go, Josh?" He shook his head. "Good. Best idea is to split up now, since they know we're here already. Phoebe and I will head around the mountain, hitting it on the west side. You and Jane can go on the northeast, and Don and Vanessa on the southeast." We all nodded in agreement. "All right," she said good luck to us and went on her way, Phoebe trailing behind her. I looked to Jane. "You take care of him for me," and she smiled and waved us off.

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It took us about ten more minutes before we started to run in the incline up the mountain. We didn't really know what we were looking for at the moment accept a clue of some sort that can help us find if the twins were here. We started going up on a dirt path, momentarily stopping to check the area. "So," I said to Vanessa, "have any ideas what exactly we should be looking for?"

"An entrance of any sort, most likely a hidden one," she said like she knew there was one already. I started feeling around the dirt wall of the mountain. It was probably eighty degrees right now being in the desert, and it wasn't making my job any easier.

We were just about to move on before I pushed in dirt into the mountain. Some dirt fell, letting a draft flow through the tiny aperture I've made. "I found something!" I called to her breathlessly. She walked up with her giant sword and slashed at the dirt wall, cutting it in a shape of a doorway. The dirt crumbled, and the rocks fell, leaving a small dark hallway, leading from left to right. She took a peak inside, then motioned me into the earthly hallway.

It was dark with roots hanging from the ceiling. The hallway was empty, giving me the urge to shout down to hear my echo. "The monsters must be guarding the gods," Vanessa whispered to me. "Be careful not to alarm anybody, and watch your step." I nodded. Right now, we just infiltrated, and that leads to stealth, though eventually it'll end.

We tiptoed around the corner to our right and stopped. Two hellhounds were sleeping in front of a big door. Vanessa gave ma a look, and I knew the plan. She silently drew her big blade as I notched an arrow. She creped up towards it and as she mouthed three, stabbed it in the head as I shot my arrow. None of the dogs had time to wake up; it was too late for them. Slowly, Vanessa twisted the door nob and opened the door. Inside, there was blood on the ground with what seemed like skin on top and mixed with it. A razor laid on the ground on the side, but there was nothing else. Vanessa's face went red with anger. "I swear, if they did what I think they did to her-"

"They couldn't have," I said quickly to calm her down, but I basically only convinced myself. She shook her head and quietly closed the door. She turned around and we went back the way we came from, going past the whole we made. We came to another dirt wall with multiple dirt rooms with various items like bones, sheets, and a weapon room. We skimmed them all, and kept moving, finding nothing of any value.

Finally, we came to a large dark area, even a little dark for me to see. "Can you see anything?" she whispered.

"No, not really," I responded. Then the ceiling above us shook violently and dirt fell. Slightly, I could hear Thaila yell again followed by another shake. "They must've spotted her and Phoebe," I whispered. "Maybe we should go out and help fight."

"No," Vanessa said. "Right now, we have the element of surprise. It would be much better we kept it that way,"

"Are you sure about that?" A voice from the dark came. All of a sudden, candles all around the once was dark area lit themselves. The area was big and wide and to the left of as was a huge giant. The giant I have seen in my dreams: at least nine feet tall with a black beard like the Christian figure Moses. He had a light cloth around his waist to his knees, and that was about it. He looked like a forty-year-old man enlarged. He was sitting down on a thrown his side with a blond guy struggling against…thread the giant's color skin. "Dad!" I yelled. He looked up with tears in his eyes. "Don! Go help your brother! Come back and get me later!"

"How can you say that?" I yelled. Just then, whatever higher force was screwing my life up screwed it up, and I heard Josh yell up above. I had no idea what was happening up there, but I wasn't sure me going up would really make a difference. I was about to reject the idea and beat the giant bastard, (that being the actual giant, not my dad) but Vanessa went in front of me. "Don, most likely the squadron with the Minotaur is up there, and they can use your help. Plus, the first rule of having a god be on your good side is not to say 'no.'" I looked at her and was about to fight back and said I wanted to teach this bastard a lesson, but her look ended the conversation. A second half of me didn't want this to go down since I saw what he did to Artemis and I didn't want it to happen to her. If he can beat a god, he can definitely beat her.

Then I heard a rumble above and a roar. I shook my head. "You hold this tall monster off until all five of us gets back, ok?"

"I wouldn't have planned it any other way," she responded and she drew her heavy sword and faced the giant. As confident as she sounded, I can hear a little nervousness in her voice. I shook my head, knowing her character she wouldn't be, but still… "Now move!" she yelled. "The hole we made in the mountain should still be there."

I nodded, and I turn and ran without looking back.

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Vanessa and Apollo were right when they said my friends needed help. They were at the top of a cliff, backed against the earth and surrounded by monsters. No, wait…they were chained to the dirt _by _the dirt. I didn't know how, but they were. The Minotaur roared to make the monster squad, about a mix of hellhounds and a few of those metal birds floating above them like vultures. I was a little bit far below them, and I knew I had to act fast. I quickly drew my bow and notched a golden sharp arrow as the 'bull'y seemed to be mocking them. I was about to fire until a voice came into my head: "No, Don. Shoot higher."

I looked up a little to see a root sticking out, and my nature senses kicked in. I was taught back at the camp that most likely when a root of something is sticking out like that, it was a weak supporter of whatever it was caring: dirt. The lesson was to help make sure we were safe by not risking avalanches. Below, the dirt seemed to curve like a ramp above my friends. I said a quick 'thank you' in my head to Aphrodite, as I assumed that she was who said that, and let it fly. It was a lobbed shot, but it hit right where I wanted it to, and that's obvious. For a split second, I saw the Minotaur stopped moving and looked around, and the window of opportunity opened. Quickly, the dirt fell, and avalanched over the squad. A good few of them fell off the cliff, and my common sense kicked in, too: it was time for me to book it.

I side jumped along the wall as the dirt avalanche with a mix of dogs went right passes me. A few of them got out and tried to regain balance, but I made sure that didn't happen. The one thing I noticed was that the Minotaur didn't come down, nor was there a sign that my friends got loose. Panic building up inside me, I ran until I saw a nice climbing place, and I went up. I got up and saw that only Thaila and Phoebe got loose and they were fighting the big bull right now. Thaila saw me and cried, "Don! Up!" Too late, I realized what she meant. I completely forgot about the birds up until I felt sharp stabs in my back.

Weakened from the pain, I tumbled down the mountain and landed on one of its ridges. I got up, moaning. I looked up and saw the devilish birds, four of them floating above me. I notched an arrow, but suddenly, they were transforming into…ducks. At first, I thought they had shape-shifting abilities until I remembered what Thaila said: _'some of them also have poison on them. Get hit, and you'll be hallucinating for a while." _

_Great, _I though. _Now I'm thinking ducks can fly. What next, pigs?_

I pulled on the bow, but the birds saw the motioned and swooped down. Timing it, I shot one of the 'ducks' and it went down, quacking and flapping its wings crazily. _One down, three to go_…

(Later)

To make a long story short, it took me about five minutes to take care of the birds there. When I shot the last one to the ground, I was breathing heavily. I wanted to lie there and take a nap, but whoever was screwing with my life didn't think they screwed it tight enough. After slowly taking the metal feathers out of my back, the dogs that fell from the avalanche didn't waste any time and went up again. When I was done, I can here them barking, I ran up again. I had no idea what happened to the others over the time and I prayed they were okay.

When I finally got to where my friends were, I was ready to hand my soul to Hades; I was in so much pain. In a little area, 'bull' was now fighting Thaila one on one now, and Phoebe was motionless on the ground next to Josh and Jane's feet. Blood rose to my face and without thinking took and arrow and shot it at him.

The Minotaur was unfortunately heavily armored, and the arrow reflected harmlessly of him. Thaila was hopping around him with a celestial bronze sword and her shield with the Medusa face on it. The best thing I figured I could do was a) try to free Josh and Jane or b) support Thaila in her fight. Ultimately, I saw both of them pointless since a pack of hellhounds was just about here, but I went to Josh. "Ah, thank gods," Josh said as he saw me. "Get us out of here!"

"I'll try," I told him, but that was basically all I could say without saying a lie. Their arms and part of their feet were way into the earth. I started pulling on his back, hoping he would budge. By then, I was fed up with the world for not helping me out and was about to give up. I almost did until I noticed the lighting change around. I looked up, confused since I knew there were no clouds in the sky. And there still was none. Instead, it was the moon. The moon was slowly covering the sun. I kept pulling until I stopped to get the message: _you shall triumph with Artemis's eight minutes of power._

The eclipse.

_Right _when I realized that, three things happened. 1) Thaila made her mistake. Being caught off guard by the lighting, she misplaced her foot and tripped. She tried to get up, but the Minotaur stomped on her, leaving her at his mercy. 2) All the hellhounds caught up back to us. They saw that they were winning and started to growl, looking at me. 3) I felt a pain in my gut. I went to my knees holding my stomach and not trying to hold there and yelled in pain. All the while, I was glowing white. I knew this was a good sign, but I sure wasn't feeling it yet. Everyone was becoming aware, except for Phoebe, who was still out cold. Once I was glowing as bright as a stage light in theaters, the dogs whimpered and ran the other way. The Minotaur looked at me, momentarily forgetting Thaila. At the realization of what was happening, he lifted his axe to swipe down at Thaila, but that was all I saw until I was engulfed in brightness.

The pain started to subdue quickly, and replacing it came strength. I felt like I could run across the states, lift the world, fly in the sky. I yelled at the sheer sensation, as somebody would do on a rollercoaster. When I did, I couldn't see anything for a short time. Then I started to dim down until I wasn't giving off any more light. I opened my eyes slowly. The first thing I realized was that an axe didn't go through Thaila. Instead, it was barely above her head, in the surface area of Thaila's laid out hair. I looked down and sighed with relief, and that's when I realized my second thing: my clothes. I was wearing a black t-shirt with a black leather motorist jacket. I wore dark jeans with a belt around my waist with the newest 498 shoes (Vans classic with height). At first, I was wondering how do I go from 'robes' to 'motorist' true form until I remembered I was hosting Aphrodite still. I made a silent pray as I realized my last thing: I wasn't tired. Most likely due to her.

Thaila was still breathing heavily as if the Minotaur was still on her. Then she ran her hands down her face and sat up to look at me. "Barely, Don, but thanks. I like how your true form looks." She smiled for it was basically the same style she had except the accessories and make-up.

"Yeah," Jane said, "Now can you get us out of here?"

"Sure," I said. "Why n-" That was when I was interrupted by a high-pitched scream. I paused as the horrible lines came to me: _but fail to save the hero in that hour._

_Vanessa, no! _I thought, and completely forgetting Josh and Jane, I dashed to the hole in the mountain.

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To simplest way to describe what I saw was how my dream ended with Artemis except Vanessa was in her place. Vanessa lay next to the inner wall of the room. Apollo was still tied to his chair looking on with horror on his face as the giant walked up to her and bent down to pick her up. Blood rose to my face again. _"Don't even touch her!" _I yelled with such anger in my voice. The giant turned around and smiled. "Ah, the chosen one comes to me on his own accord! Gaea must be doing an act of providence for me."

"I will make your life worse than braking a promise on the Styx," I growled and drew my bow. The giant saw this and roared with laughter. "Oh, small one. You do not understand what you are saying. I am one of those giants than cannot be beaten unless you have a god!" he chuckled. "And unfortunately, the two nearest gods to you are chained up. And I've made necessary acts to make sure they don't get loose," he said as he lifted his arm to display his under part of it. It was dark red with skin ripped all below.

"That," I said, "is incredibly disgusting. But even if that is true, _I _am the chosen one of the fates." I boomed with confidence. "As I stand in front of you, out of all the other gods out there, _I _am your god. And today, I will pass judgment." I started to activate my nature senses, scanning every bit of dirt in the wide area, about a twenty to thirty feet circle. There was another passage dead ahead of me a little bit to the right of where Vanessa's giant sword laid. _This is for you._

Wow. Where that thought came from, I couldn't tell if that was Aphrodite manipulating how I felt right now, but I was pretty sure I didn't think of her like that…probably not yet. The giant stared down at me. "Meh, typical of the average demigod thinking. All hope and no chance of making it reality. All right then, I think you, no, _I _have the honor of introducing myself to you. I am Tityus. Back in the ancient days, I tried to rape your grandmother," he said looking at Apollo, "but you're annoying dad and aunt got in my way. So I have come back to take my revenge. I've been planning this for a hundred years, ever since Gaea let me out when she opened the Doors of Death. In my way of returning my thanks to, technically, _everyone's _somehow mother, I will kill you in her name."

"Wow," I said. "Reminds me of just about what you just said. 'All hope and no chance of making it reality.'"

"Rawr! I will kill you for such mockery!" He charged, and let us all be honest: something at least twice the size of you charging you will at first freak anybody. I stood there for one second, then woke up. He threw a heavy punch, but I jumped. His fist went right into the ground and I landed on his arm. Without wasting anytime, I ran up drawing my knife from my mom. I leaped and tried to stab him in the eye, but he pulled his fist out just in time and pulled back. I rolled when I landed and quickly shooting an arrow. He smiled and didn't even try to dodge. Instead of what he probably thought, the golden arrow went straight into his chest. I looked down as he watched blood come out.

"Wha…how did you-"

"Once again," I repeated, "I am your god right now. It is my will to kill you."

For the first time, he started to look nervous. Just then, Thaila, Josh, Jane, and Phoebe came in behind me and saw him. Phoebe looked a little weak still, but I was glad to see her standing. "Who's-" Josh started to say until he saw Vanessa on the ground. When he did, he curled his fists. "No he _didn't_."

"Josh," I told him. "I need you to find Artemis with Jane and Phoebe. Thaila, I need you to help me kill this son of a bee with an itch."

She nodded and turned to Phoebe. "Phoebe, I'm counting on you." Phoebe nodded and went along the perimeter of the spacious area until she reached the pathway dead ahead of me and ran. While I watched her do this, a thought came to me. _Reenactment of a rescue. _If he explained to me he tried to rape the twin's mom, or my grandma…

He saw the look on my face and had a cruel grin. "Yes, son of Apollo, I did try, but her will is strong. It was about to break until I felt your presence."

Now Thaila was pissed, and thankfully not at me. I could hear thunder above us as she was griping her bow so hard, her knuckles were right. She didn't even boast or give him a warning. She charged with a battle cry, and I followed behind. Now Tityus was really worried. He wasn't really eager to take us on, but it didn't really look like he had a choice. He swung his fists and stepped backwards to prevent us from leaping on him. We didn't mind since we had the advantage with range. I kept shooting arrow after arrow into him while Thaila kept him busy with her sword and shield. Desperately, he charged Thaila, but she rolled and silted his ankle, causing him to fall.

With that, I didn't waste any time. I immediately ran to my dad with my knife out. I cut the 'ropes' off and he stood up stretching. "Aw, thank you, my son," he said. His hand and back glowed until there was a bow and quiver there, just like mine. "I'm going to help your friends free my sister, since they can't do it without a god. You think you can manage?"

"He'll be gone before you even return," I promised. Without staying to get a hug since I knew I could get that later, I turned to help Thaila as Tityus got up again. "You cursed demigods," he muttered as he spat out dirt.

"Buddy, there's more where that came from," and she charged again. She went up and charged the injured limb, but Tityus knew her plan. He slid his foot right when he swung and swung back, kicking Thaila like a soccer ball. She tumbled, but used the momentum to hop right back up again and charged. I continued to shoot arrows as support, but I already knew we needed a big blow to finish him off. I looked around, but there wasn't really anything to finish him off with. Except maybe…

"Thaila!" I pulling out an arrow I never used before. It wasn't really sharp as the golden one nor did it have anything attached to it like the sonic one, so I would have to experiment again. In her spare moment, she quickly glanced at me, and I swept my foot, giving her the message. She turned her attention back to the big guy nodding. She drew an arrow that seemed to have never ending wire coming out of it. Thaila keeping him busy, I ran to Vanessa's heavy sword. _Arrow experiment would have to be later_, I thought. The dust in the red sphere seemed to move like a hurricane as I picked it up. Well, tried to. It was at least fifty pounds of metal stabbed into the dirt. I didn't feel like doing the sword-in-the-stone pull out, so I took it and dragged it.

I watch the two go at it, waiting for Thaila to make her move. Tityus made a punch at her, but she rolled gracefully and tried to slice at him. I was wondering what she was waiting for until I saw the already set trap. There was a wire was stretched across from the one entrance into the area next to the other pathway across from it. Hurryingly, I dragged the blade across the area to where his throne was. Just in time. Thaila, keeping his attention with her devilish moves (when was she able to send electricity through her sword?) kept swinging at his foot. Tityus still thought his main problem was keeping his leg from being less damaged, but that was his mistake. As he stepped back against the wire he lost balance. "Huh?" was all the time he had to say before he fell flat on his back.

I quickly got on top of him as Thaila shot the last arrow around his neck before he tried to get up. He starred at me as I lifted the heavy sword in front of him. "Bah!" he said. "Go ahead and finish me. It is useless, for Gaea _will _rise!" he said with a snarl. "The prophecy has been for told! She will rise! SHE WILL!"

I stared at him as my mind played a replay of my dream and what he did to Artemis and I grabbed the hilt with both hands. "The verdict has been passed." And with that, I cut his nose wide open like cutting up logs with an axe. He yelled, then ever so slowly, turned to dust. I landed on the pile of gold dust with the big blade. Thaila came up to me withdrawing her bow. "Good riddance," she said and looked at me. She was about to say something, but I turned and went to Vanessa's cold body. I knelt over it and a tear broke. Normally, I wouldn't have done this, but I knew Aphrodite was messing with my emotions.

Thaila came over to me and knelt. "She was strong," she tried to comfort me. "I would have asked her to be a hunter with her talents if this wouldn't happened. But she knew her duty."

"What do you mean by that?" I yelled accidentally. "You mean you _knew _she was going to die and you let it happen?"

She didn't even react to my yelling or snap back. "No, _she _knew it was going to happen. She was acting weird after you came back with Aphrodite to me, and it wasn't jealousy, so I wasn't sure. But now…"

I was going to ask her what she meant by jealousy. There was nothing to be jealous about. Just then, the others came back with Artemis. She was wearing a white silk dress caring twin hunting blades. They all had surprised looks on their faces when they saw the big pile of dust behind me, but they quickly changed when they saw us kneeling over Thaila. "Don," Josh said, but he kept quiet. There was a long silence as we all just looked. Then Artemis finally approached: "It is unfortunate that this is what the fates decided to happen, but we must move on in case more come."

_No, _I thought in my mind. _This isn't how I wanted it to end. This isn't-_

Then a crazy idea came to me. I'm not an encyclopedia of Greek stuff but I at least remember one myth. If I can just act upon that myth…

I stood up and wiped my eyes. Then I walked over to Apollo and hugged him. Trying to push the thought of what happened recently out of my mind, I was glad my quest was over. He hugged me back, rubbing his hand through my hair. "Hey," Josh said, and Apollo wrapped his arm around him two. Then he knelt down with his hands on his shoulders. "I am very proud of both of you and your friends. I'm sure Vanessa has achieved Elysium and so will you all when your guys' turn come." He looked towards Artemis. "And thank you for saving my little sis."

I could tell from her face she was paranoid, but she turned to Thaila and Phoebe. "You girls have done well. I would have not expected anything more from my top lieutenants. Let us go back to Camp Half Blood to pick up the other hunters."

"Wait," I said, and everyone looked at me. I was getting nervous whether to follow through with my plan, but I held. "Dad, may I ask you something in private, please?"

He looked at me as if trying to figure me out. "Of course, Don."

"Oh, and don't wait for me, Artemis," I said. "I plan to go somewhere else after this."

She nodded. She started to glow like I do from time to time, and I looked away. When the light was gone, so was everyone else, except my dad. "So, what is it you wanted to ask me?"

I swallowed and took a deep breath. "What was the song Orpheus sung?"

**Done! Finally done! I could imagine some readers thought I ditched this story because it's been forever since an update but 6,707 words and a gothic essay can really take time. Now the quest is done, so I will explain the prophecy:**

'**The five of the quest fight for salvation' Don and Josh was fighting for Apollo, Thaila and Phoebe for Artemis, and Vanessa to have a chance of getting a Pegasus.**

'**Reenactment of a rescue' As I explained in the story, the original was when Tityus tried to rape Leto, Apollo's and Artemis's mother and he failed. Here, Artemis didn't get raped and Don (Apollo in past) and Thaila (Artemis in past) defeated Tityus.**

'**Rebirth of a creation' the creation was the labyrinth**

'**You shall triumph with Artemis's eight minutes of power' that was the eclipse. During then, Don went god and defeated all the monsters that badly outnumbered them.**

'**But fail to save the hero in that hour' that was Vanessa. She sacrificed herself to buy enough time for Don to save the other four.**

'**The king's domain shall show you the way' that was the constellation of Zoë Nightshade. Zeus (king of the gods)'s domain was the sky and Don found the twins from where Zoë was pointing.**

'**The daughter's weakness shall show you astray' that was Thaila. Her weaknesses, heights, lead the group into the labyrinth, which killed time.**

'**An ancient creature reveals the key that'll make or break your destiny' The creature was the hippalectryon was the ancient creature and the key was the golden bow Don got. His destiny is to be later explained, probably in the next book.**

**And please, guys, if you like this chapter, send me a message that you dead. Reviews, private message, anything, even if you're reading this after I've finished the book. It'll mean a lot to me since I made so much work into this chapter for you guys! :D Thank you! READ AND REVIEW!-Flappy741**


	17. Chapter 17: A second Chance

Chapter 17: A Second Chance

I was starting to majorly regret not taking a ride with Artemis back to camp. I would have seriously taken advantage of it if I known the Doors of Orpheus were in Central Park, New York.

I was riding on Bonnie high up in the sky. I couldn't get a good idea of where we were in the country since we were way high up. I would know when we got to Central Park when I either see the Empire State Building or Bonnie starts to decline. Bonnie was a strong girl. We've been flying in the sky ever since we left and at a pretty fast pace, too. I never flown a normal Pegasus, but if I have, they wouldn't even begin to compare to my hippalectyon. I thought all of this while I was patting her. We've been flying for two hours now and she didn't show any signs of fatigue.

Having all this time alone let me put my thoughts straight and to think. When I first told my dad about my plan about going _way _down, he rejected the idea at first. I started to complain that I had a good chance, and while in the conversation, he broke down and allowed be with his blessing of light, whatever that was. If this was what it was like hosting _one _god, I would be almost invincible hosting all of them. A while ago, I was ready to curse cupid out, but up until now, I was ready to give an offering. I don't know what the conversation they had was all about, but I was glad they had it. I would have never considered the opportunity to go into the underworld if I wasn't hosting Aphrodite.

Plus, I was also able to sneak in a word with Apollo of what it meant to be the Chosen One. He denied telling me until I let Aphrodite go autopilot with my voice. She said some things that I would never in a million years say, but it was worth it. We came upon the agreement that if I succeeded in getting Vanessa out and alive again, I would be told somehow and in someway what it meant later. I don't know how long _later _is or how it'll be told, but it brought my hopes up. Failure was not an option today.

While I was flying, the air in front of me shimmered. The water vapors started to form and make a figure of a familiar person. "Don!" the icon of Jane said. "Why didn't you come with us back to camp? What are you doing?"

"I'm flying back in your direction right now," I told her. Technically, that was the truth but not all of it. I didn't want to raise anyone else's hopes about Vanessa coming back in case I didn't. "I'll be there at the most three days. How's camp?"

She immediately lit up. "I _love _it here! This is definitely home to me! When the pigmies where raising me, they didn't have a need for my products I was selling, but here, business is booming! I've already met tones of friends at the camp already. Kind of sad I'm the only sibling of Hecate, but a whole cabin to myself almost substitutes it!"

"I'm glad to hear that," I smiled. "Can't wait until I get back myself. But anyway, did you send an Iris message to chat or to ask something or not what?"

"Oh, almost forgot," she exclaimed, then she disappeared from view. Chiron's face popped up a few seconds later. "Don?"

"Hey, Chiron," I responded. "Did you need something from me?"

"Not exactly in the way you think. When Artemis came back, I was quite surprised to see Jane instead of you or Vanessa. It's unfortunate that Vanessa had to pass away at an early age, but I'm relieved that you didn't go with her. Now, you brother Josh was filling me in on the majority of what happened, but I need to see this for myself." He scrunched his beard. "Is it true when Josh says that you bare the symbol of the fates on you?"

I raised my arm so my underarm exposed my triangle like marking. He just looked at it like it was an illusion trick, looking at it from different angles. "I see," he finally said. "I knew I felt something when I met you, but I get those feelings a lot. But, uh, are you in the air?"

"Yeah," I said. "You probably can't see her well, but this is Bonnie. Say hi to Chiron, Bonnie!" She just snorted and kept flying. "Um, yeah, she's kind of focusing right now, but I'll show you later."

He nodded. "It is interesting you have made friends with the hippalectryon. Knowing it was once the mount of Kronos in the Golden age, I was having doubts. But I'm glad you are ok. So where do you plan on going?"

I thought hard. Knowing Chiron, he probably wouldn't let me go through with my plan, so I scratched my brain. "I'm going to be asking a god a few questions. Nothing dangerous." The last part, I wasn't it was a lie. I was only asking if he could return her, not bribe or blackmail or anything.

Chiron raised his eyebrows. "You have finished your quest already, but if you really need to ask-"

"It's life or death," I interrupted. The statement wasn't about me, but it was still the truth.

He sighed. "Be back by three days at most. I don't want to be sending a search party or you having the same fate as Vanessa. Especially not you." Then the image shimmered, the water repelling each other until it was gone. _Alright, _I thought. _Got to make this quick..._

000000000000000000000000000

It took Bonnie and I one full day to get back to New York. I stopped and got a large horse mount for Bonnie so I can sleep on long trips. Normally, it was five hundred dollars, but with Aphrodite, price went down to eighty. Using the hundred dollars mom gave me I bought that plus donuts for Bonnie and I using the hundred dollars mom gave me. I found she like sprinkles a lot, so finding her favorite food: check.

After what seemed like forever, Bonnie descended right when I saw the Empire State Building. It was dark, around eight, so I didn't attract to many people's attention, if any. We landed in the park next to a huge cluster of boulders. I remembered in the myth the entrance opened from rocks, so I assumed this had to be it. "Alright girl, if you hear my whistle, you know what to do."

She whined, then turned and galloped into the air. I wondered where she goes all these times, but that's a mystery for later. I dropped my bag and dug through it. I took out Josh's flute he used to wake Vanessa. From here, I let Aphrodite go on autopilot. I knew the poison must wearing off in my head, but I had to make it work. I put the flute to my lips, and let Aphrodite play the song she wanted to play.

And, of course, it was 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight' by John Elton. Why am I not surprised? I played for about half a minute. After playing for a minute, the rocks started to rumble with the ground shaking beneath me. Erotically, the stones split open, revealing a triangle entrance. A warm moist air breezed passed me with the smell of mildew. I walked up in front of the entrance. Steps led down the dark tunnel, maybe directly to the Underworld. "I can't believe I'm doing this," I told myself and walked down the steps.

If it weren't for my bow being a glow stick as well, after ten steps, I would've went back up. _Another thing to add to my list of useful stuff: a flashlight. _The bow glowed dimly golden light; just enough for me to see were to place my foot for the next step. The stairway was dangerous: steep, narrow, and wet. How Orpheus went down these stairs and up without dying was beyond me. At least on his way up, he could've made railings so I can slide down.

I must've walked for three quarters of an hour if not a full one before something new popped up. After reaching the final step at the bottom of the stairway with another triangular doorway, I saw it all. I was at the base of a cliff with rich…sand. The sand was black and warm like an igneous rock just being hardened from lava. To my right was a river of grren mist and ghosts flowing down Far down the river, there was also a…ferry? A guy with an Italian red velvet suit was paddling thin air with white blurs floating above the raft.

What the heck. There was a way down here instead of stairs and I took the stairway of hell. Whatever higher power there was, I swore then and there I would one day smack it.

To my left in the distance was my unfortunate destination: a huge black wall with ramparts of green fire blazing. Big black gates stood taller than the wall with ghosts in a line. It was hard to see that through grren mist floating around like sand in a dust storm. I gulped, then quickly calmed down. _There's no need to be worried. There's no need to be worried… _I started to the obsidian walls repeating that though in my mind.

I walked up towards the ghost clump and waved my hand to one of them. "Um, hi. Is this the line to get in?" The ghost acted like I wasn't there, or couldn't really sense me. Cautiously out of curiosity, I tried to put my hand on his back. It went right through him like pure air. I stumbled, then regained my balance. _Keep it cool, Don. Keep it cool. There's no place like home. _I continued to walk, literally moving through the crowd.

The though changed to _there's no place like home _when a HUGE dog appeared right in front of me halfway to the walls. "What the-!" I tripped trying to back away from the thing.

"Arroooo!" All three of its heads howled up into the sky, then hung down and growled at me. Foam was already foaming from the corners of all its mouths as it walked towards me. The twenty-five foot hound gave me a _give me a reason or give me a snack _look, probably me being the bone. "Um, it's ok, boy," I said to myself more than to him. Suddenly, a burst of courage wacked me in the face. I stood up and look at him in the eyes. Um, two out of six of them, anyways.

"BAD BOY!" I must've been out of my flipping mind to yell that, but I really probably wasn't. The hound suddenly look at me with of confusion and fear. It whimpered, and bowed its head in disappointment. "Move aside!"

It barked in approval so loud, my teeth hummed. Then it plotted to the right of me and sat, looking like an Egyptian statue of a hound at attention. I nodded, then walked past the dog. The dog looked at me as I did, then when I passes him, blended in with the mist. I could still see its eyes, but that was about it. I turned toward the crowd again and breathed. _This better be worth it._

When I got to the walls, there was like an airport security at the gates. I was about to walk through until one of the dead held his hand and shouted, "halt!" I stopped and looked at the mustached ghost with an airport suit on. "State your business!"

"I'm seeing Hades," I told the guy. I didn't feel myself put any force into the words, but he nodded. "Checks out okay. Ok, you may pass." Nothing special really happened, so I walked on. What I came to next was…sad? Depressing? Both. A huge field, going far where I can't see the end, with black grass was filled with ghosts. Some unconsciously floated into each other and kept going. The Fields of Asphodel. Why it's called fields and not field_ was not my worry.

At the distance, I saw what was like a castle, and headed straight there, not bothering to look at the place that looked like heaven with a paradise house or hell with a ghost in a boiling pot. I wanted to go in, get what I needed, and go out. No detours.

The castle was surrounded by another wall, but smaller than the first. Three birds…no, women…no, whatever, were circling above the gates. The gates also had engravings in it of soldiers killing each other of different eras. I tried stay calm, but with death all around me, it didn't really help. I walked past the gates and walked through the courtyard of metals: gold, rubies, anything worth as much as gold or more. There were also pomegranate trees in the middle and statues of random people all around. I closed my eyes with my hand up and walked straight through.

At the doors of the palace, two skeleton soldiers carrying rifles moved in front of me and aimed. "Step aside," I commanded, knowing the charmspeak would kick in like the other times. They stood there shocked, looked at each other, then turned around and opened the doors, and I walked through. The inside was amazing for once down here. All around were candles bearing reddish fire with a chandelier at the ceiling fifteen feet above me. There was a red carpet leading to the throne, which was occupied. Hades, the ten-foot guy radiating with power in black robes, was talking to five skeleton troops. "…be there. I don't want the-."

That's when he saw me. He looked at me with surprised, then it was quickly replaced with a stern look. He motioned the soldiers to step aside and he stood up. I gulped. Unlike Aphrodite, I could tell right of the bat he was a good. He looked at me like I was an ant, deciding to whether to have mercy on me or slaughter me. "And who," he asked, "are you?"

I squinted. Unlike all the other obstacles I went through, he was a god. I doubt charmspeak would work, but it was all I got. If I didn't play my cards down right now, all of this was for nothing. "I'm Don Sharp," I announced. "Please, Lord Hades, let my love Vanessa Stem go from the Fields of Asphodel."

I knew in my head I still didn't feel that way for her, but Aphrodite was taking point right now. If she believed this was the way, I was all in. He studied me. "You've come to me personally in my home to ask for an impossible request?" He laughed. "I admire your courage mixed with your stupidity, but no. Now leave, before my patience runs thin."

"Please, sir!" I cried. From squinting for so long, tears were rolling down my cheeks. I tried to put all of my emotion into this. I tried to remember her on the ground still like a stone, but it didn't help much. "Please! I'll do anything!" I waved my arms to try to increase the effect.

_Note to self: no I wouldn't. _He turned to me again clearing his throat and growling. "I've had enough of this! If you did not leave-!" Then he stopped, his eyes slightly opening wider. "Wh-what is that on your arm there?" he stuttered. I looked at my arm with the mark of the Fates and showed it to him. He walked over slowly and observed it more closely. "Where did you get this?"

"I-," I sniffled, trying to keep the sob story up. "I got it when I have gotten this bow," I raised it for him so he can see it better. "When I got it, I got hit my something and I heard in my head 'the chosen one has accepted his destiny.'"

He studied it like it held the future. Then he stood up and calmed himself. Massively, he began to shrink, all the way until he was at least six feet. "What was the person you said you wanted back?"

I wiped the dry tears. "Vanessa Stem, my love."

"Very well. I will give you a chance, and _one only. _If you fail at the task I am going to let you do, she will permanently stay in the Underworld forever." He snapped his fingers. The air shimmered in between us. Mist started to form, until there was a familiar ghost in front of me with her red heavy sword on her black with a red sphere. "Vanessa."

She did not give any sign of hearing me. She just floated just like the other ghosts. "So this is the one you chose?" he asked and I nodded. "Very well. Hopefully, you remembered the way you came back. Leave the Underworld the way you came. She will be following you the whole time. If _both _of you make it back to the living, then I will willingly grant her a second chance. _But, _if you are to turn around _once _before you reach the living, you will not have her soul. Are we clear?"

I nodded confidently. Aphrodite has been a real help, but from here on out, it would be all me. I would not ruin this.

"Thank you, my kind lord. I will remember your kindness all my life and spread how nice you are."

He was happy to hear that. All the time he was talking, he looked like I was taking money from him with his hands tied. Now he looked like he just got a brand new vase for the money I took from him.

The doors opened, and I ran out. I figured the less time I spent in here escorting her out, the easier it would be. I ran through the yard, past the fields of Asphodel, through the security ghouls, around the ghost mob, under Cerberus's legs, over the black sand and to the triangle entrance. Even though I kept running, I was already tired. (All that running took about fifteen to twenty minutes) I jogged up the stairs, breathing heavily. I slowed down due to the slipperiness and the darkness. If I tripped and fell back, I'm pretty sure that would count and she fly away. _Think positive, _I thought. _She __**will **__be alive!_

(Four hours later)

I was shattered now. I felt like my lungs were going to pop, but I kept going. I was getting impatient, waiting for any sign I was getting close to the end. I imagined her behind me with a spear at my back. Not the best comforting, but it would be like her and it was another reason for me not to look back. I wondered how long it took Orpheus to get up here. It took me about forty five minutes to walk down. Why would it take forever to get up.

Then a horrible thought came to me: _what if it was those illusion crabs? What if I'm in an illusion?_

I mentally slapped my self and kept going. At this time, I was starting to wonder if this was worth it. _Aphrodite said she was in the Fields of Asphodel, but what if she was wrong? What if she was in Elysium? What if-? _I mentally slapped myself again. I didn't care if she was mad at me if I brought her back. All the Greek stories I've read (which wasn't a lot) had horrible endings. Almost everyone. A man kills his father and has kids with his mom, a whole war fought over a misunderstanding, Heracles being forced to do torture jobs. I was determined to not have any of those

Then my thoughts drifted to why I was actually doing this. As much as I wanted to say for the happy ending, it was true, but broken down. I was leading a quest and someone died. First impressions really sets an impression on someone for a while, and a failure impression on the whole camp wouldn't be one of them. Plus, I saw and met Vanessa's siblings. If anything, I didn't want to make enemies with them.

Then my thoughts drifted again to the mark on my arm. Hades had a clear thought in his mind of not letting her return, but when he saw my mark, he gave me a chance. What was it about this mark that made the lord of the dead rethink his idea? What was-!

My thoughts were interrupted by sheer adrenaline and happiness for what I saw: light. In a little gloom, I could see the blue sky get bigger and bigger as I went up the steps. I ran up at full speed. I tripped a few times and hit myself hard in a few places, but I ignored the pain. The blue sky grew bigger and bigger through my eyes. Bigger, and bigger!-until…"

A blast of fresh air hit my face as I ran through the green grass. It was sunny and was noon with colors everywhere, unlike the underworld. I had to slow down before I completely stopped and fell on my knees, breathing heavily. My head almost automatically turned around, but I prevented myself. I remembered that Hades said _both _of us must be up here before she can be alive again. I cried-real tears this time-from the anticipation, the success, and being so close to the goal and yet so far. Ultimately, I decided to sit there and wait until something happened.

(One hour later)

I was now ripping myself apart. One hour of waiting was killing me. I personally felt like my soul was lifting and going down again. Luckily, about a half an hour after I came up, Bonnie found me. She was laying next to me, and I was leaning against her. My head was against thigh, and eye closed my eyes trying to imagine her coming up the stairs. I thought it multiple times, just her coming out and putting her hand on my shoulder. Every time I did, it hurt more since it wasn't reality. But soon… I must have been thinking that for hours.

…

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my back. I turned around, filled with joy… but immediately replaced with horror. The hand wasn't Vanessa's. It was a young woman's, in a black robe. Her robe looked like igneous rocks were glued to it and her hand felt like soil. But the strangest thing, her eyes were closed. Well, not all the way closed. But from what I can see from her eyes was sandstorms, earthquakes, mountains, etc. all together and looked like punishment for whoever was in it. It was hard to see all that with a veil over her face.

"So," she said. Her voice was gentle, but it worried me. "You are the only thing in my path. The thought of you bringing me down is an insult from the fates, but I will still play cautious. I have made every precaution to make sure you are not alive when I finally awaken from my long slumber." She motioned her hand to another girl standing right next to her. She was gorgeous, even in battle armor. She had long dark chocolate hair and eyes with an intimidating look. He had steel armor over a brown camouflage spaghetti strap and pants with hiking boots. She had a weird watch with several buttons and a sharp stone spear. Yet she looked familiar, somehow.

"This is the demon, mother?" she asked, and I choked. She sounded, and with the realization of her voice, had same similar features, with almost an exact voice of Annabeth, the girl in my dream with the prophecy of seven. But that couldn't be. She just called this dirt woman mom and she somewhat looked like her too. Who _was _this girl?

The dirt woman chuckled. "Ho, he's not much of a demon right now, but yes, this is him."

The brown haired girl looked at me in the eyes. "You see this?" she asked as she raised her stone spear. "This will be the last thing you see." I was still speechless, trying to get over the fact of who she sounded like. "Who-who-?"

"It is time to go," the dirt woman said and rose. "My son was not able to dispose of you like he promised me, but all things have a time for when it comes. Sleep on, Don Sharp." She clumped her hands together like she was praying, and the other girl did the same thing. Slowly, they slipped into the earth and was gone, leaving me alone.

"Who-who was she?" I asked myself as I thought about the dirt woman. Then I though about the girl. "Who was she?" I looked at Bonnie, who was looking at me. She continued to look at me, then she spoke: "Don."

Now I was losing it. Bonnie was sounding like Vanessa. What was going on? "Don," Bonnie said again, "wake up."

"Huh?"

"Don, wake up," Bonnie repeated, then everything blurred to blackness. Then…I opened my eyes. I was laying against Bonnie, but a girl with black hair with a red streak in the front was kneeling over me. She had dark eyeliner and black spaghetti straps with blue jeans on. A huge red sword was in the ground and her hand was on my shoulder. "Don, wake up."

I sat up with a blurry vision and looked around. The sun was setting over the horizon and lights around were lighting the dark. "Ugh…"

"Smart move to fall asleep," she said. I don't know how Orpheus walked up with so much patience, but I think your idea was better.

I looked at her and smiled. "Vanessa."

"C'mon," she said. She got her sword on her back and got on Bonnie. Then she held her hand for me. "Let's go home."

**Agh! I'm so sorry! I usually write during homework, but on break, it totally through me off! D: So sorry people! Luckily, there's only one more chapter left in my story, and then I can have a nice long break to thing upon the other story. If you label me your favorite author, you will not miss the sequel to this story. I plan to make three stories. This is one, next is two, than after is three. Anyway, I think this is my best cliffhanger yet for the next story. Please tell me what you think! :D READ AND REVIEW!-Flappy741**


	18. Chapter 18: Rise of the Suns

Chapter 18: Rise of the Suns

In my mind, I was still trying to get over the fact Vanessa was here and was flesh and blood. I was holding her waist as she was asking me questions. "Why did you get me? What happened with Apollo and Aphrodite? Was I the only one who died?"

I sighed and told her what happened after she died. "I got you because I felt like a failure. I didn't want the whole camp thinking of me as a bad leader since I lost someone."

"But it was destined to happen," she said. "_But you shall fail to save the heron in that hour. _I'm glad I was hero, strangely I ended up in the Fields of Asphodel, but I was going to die anyway."

"And I wasn't going to let them stay dead," I countered. "Look, even if you were Jane or Josh, I still would have gotten you. Phoebe, maybe, but definitely you three."

"What about Thaila?"

"She wasn't going to die. She was practically leading the quest and calling the shots, unlike I felt like I should have been."

"Hey, she's been on the field _way _longer than you fighting and leading," she encouraged. "For three days at camp and completing the quest, that is amazing. I'll be honest, as much as I will deny it if the question comes up again-" she looked at me, "-I couldn't have done that. Stop beating yourself up, Don."

I sighed again. "Ok, sure. At least I'll be able to actually get to know my family."

Vanessa looked at me sternly. "Are you ok? What's bothering you?"

"This," I said and showed her my fate mark. "When I went to get you, Hades had a clear 'no' in his mind when I asked him to give you another chance. But when he saw my mark, he allowed it. And then another thing…" I told her about my dream with the dirt woman and girl before she woke me up. She cursed. "Gaea already knows? That's not good."

"Gaea?"

"Remember the lecture I gave you before the tour of the camp? I think I mentioned her." She glared at me. "But to _repeat _myself, she was the ultimate goddess, the goddess of the earth. If she were to be awaken, life as we know it would be gone."

"So the end of the world is already at our doorstep?" I asked. "She told me she _will _rise and I'm pretty sure she wasn't bluffing."

"She _will _rise," she commented. Her face look darkened.

"Now, how do _you _know? Because _she _said so doesn't mean it's the truth."

She stayed quiet for a while. "I'm pretty sure everything will be explained to you tomorrow. Even the meaning of the mark, but just be patient until then." Then she did something I thought she would never do to anybody. She let go of the reigns of Bonnie, turned, and hugged me. I flinched not expecting she would do that, but I reluctantly hugged back. "Thanks for getting me. I'm glad I met you." Then she turned and refocused on the reigns again. Knowing her dad, I still didn't think she would do that.

_You did well, my hero, _Aphrodite said in my head. She'd been so quiet and inactive, I forgot she was even there. Then I started to glow. Vanessa almost turned around to look. "Again?"

I glowed brighter and brighter, but I didn't feel any rush of power. In fact, I felt the opposite. After I was done glowing, I consciously called for Aphrodite, but there was no answer. "Aphrodite left me," I informed her.

She nodded. "We'll be at camp soon. When we get there, I'd encourage you to sleep if you can anymore. Tomorrow is going to be long for you, and so will the rest of the summer."

I didn't ask any questions. The absence of Aphrodite actually made me very tired. "I'm actually tired now that she's done that. Do you-"

"Go ahead," she answered. Slowly, I turned my head and rested it on her back. I then confirmed that she was very well alive. Even though we were flying in the cold, she was very warm. It wasn't long until I closed my eyes…

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I don't remember getting off Bonnie or getting to my cabin, but I unpleasantly woke up in it. The last thing I wanted to hear in the morning: a chorus of "oh my gods!" and Josh yelling "Doooooooooooon!" I slowly opened my eyes with a blurry vision. I had difficulty looking, but I soon came into view of Josh with all my other siblings plus a few other's I didn't recognize meeting behind him. "Hi! Welcome back! Now tell us: why were you gone? Where were you?"

I winced at the clock showing seven o clock. I supposed they were kind enough to let me sleep through, but I feeling the need to be lazy that morning. Even two periods of sleep wasn't enough to replenish my energy. If you don't believe me, try walking up the steps of hell. "Umph," I murmured and waved my hand in a 'go away' motion. "Five more minutes, please. Go to Ares's cabin if you want to know."

Hurryingly, some of them went out the cabin door and I drove my head into my pillow. A minute later, the noise came back with the 'no way' and the 'how the-' I could hear someone come up next to my bunk and I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Don," Vanessa said shaking me lightly. "Wake up. Emergency council and we're needed."

"Umph," I moaned. I understand that she was being extremely nice to me, but I wasn't about to play favorites over who can make me voluntarily wake up. I motioned her away. "Five more minutes," I murmured and put my head in the pillow harder.

"Counter proposal: I will give you five seconds to get up by yourself or I'll do it, and you don't want me to." Immediately, I got up. I'd rather accept her blackmail of mysterious hell than go through it. "Good," she said. "Another three minutes to get ready to leave. I'll wait."

I looked down at myself. I had the same clothing on as I did last night, and they weren't so bad. "This is going to be quick, right? I asked. "Because I'm consciously not up until I shower."

"You're fine, and I don't know how long it's going to be. Let's go." Sarah, my older sister and cabin counselor lead us to the big house. As we walked, I couldn't help but asking. "Sarah, who were those other kids that were in the cabin?"

"They're demigods like us, but of the Roman aspect," she answered. "The explanation is kind of long, but were friends with them and their camp. They are also here for the emergency council. A few will be staying with us for special reasons, which you're about to find out."

We eventually got to the big house and into the Ping-Pong room. It was exactly how I remembered it as I got assigned the quest…except the fact that it was packed. There were more than twice as many demigods this time. It was crowded; we were all against each other in some way. Even Chiron was at the table with another demigod girl next to him. She was a redhead with a small nose and blue eyes. She was starring at me intently. In fact, everyone was starring. All the attention made me uncomfortable, and Chiron went in for the rescue. "Welcome back done…and Vanessa." He chocked out her name like it was hard to say, in which I couldn't blame it. "Would you please sit?"

There was a chair across the table from him reserved for me._ No, that's ok, _I thought, but my body walked forward. I uncomfortably sat down. I looked around and saw that none of the hunters were here, including Thaila and Phoebe. Their cabins were empty, so I assumed they had already left camp. I uncomfortably walked to the chair and sat only sound was my footsteps and the sound of the chair as it was pulled out and as it went in.

Chiron cleared his throat. "To start of this emergency meeting, don, can you please show your arm so that everyone can see? The mark, I mean." I laid out my arm so the mark showed clearly, and everyone looked at it and murmured. Even though they were all soft voices, there were a lot of us in one room, so it was loud. Chiron stomped his hoof and everyone went quiet. "Next, would you, ah, tell your story to us. Take all the time you need with the details."

To do that, I had to close my eyes and say it so I didn't get a nervous breakdown. I explained everything, from the pigmies and meeting Jane, the illusionists crabs, King Minos and his new labyrinth, how I got my golden bow and the mark, the minotaur and his attack, the death of Vanessa and Tityus, going to the Underworld to get Vanessa, and my dream with Gaea and the girl with her, and summed it back up to the present. I didn't know how long that took because I didn't know whether my head was hurting from remembering all that or the lack of oxygen in the room.

Everyone was quiet as I told it, and when I was finished, murmured again. Chiron pounded his hoof against the ground for silence. "And I believe you have questions for me?"

"Heck yes," I confirmed. "Who was the girl I saw in my dreams, what does this mark show, why is it important, and why are demigods from the Roman camp here?"

Chiron scrunched his beard on deciding on where to start. "To start, I have a few ideas of who this girl is, by the description you gave me, but until I am sure of her identity, I will not say them." He looked around the room with a 'hope you heard that because I will not bring it up again' look. "Second, as you already may know, the mark on your arm is the symbol of the Fates, the three sisters that know the fate of everything, even the world, what will happen in a millennia to tit or if it is destroyed in that time, when." He paused. "The great prophecy has spoken that Gaea will rise. To many of us, we assumed that was the end for us. But the Fates have given the gods and the rest of us beings to stay dominant. On an artifact, they have put a blessing that who ever received it would have powers to give us a chance to continue." He paused and I realized the hidden message. "Never before has anybody in ancient history have been given the power to host gods, or anything of higher power, I should say…until you came long." He paused again, and I knew he was doing it for the dramatic effect. I guess an old guy like him needed to have fun once in a while, but I found it messed up in many ways. "Don, you have the power to host practically _everything: _gods, spirits, nymphs, everything. Being able to host everything, With all that power, you will be as powerful as Uranus, the ultimate god of all time, the only one more powerful, if not equal, to Gaea."

There was a long pause, but I knew he was done. During it, I let it all sink in. I was the last hope for everything that wasn't pure evil. I was the final-the last stand for it all. Me.

The girl next to Chiron saw my face and quickly spoke up. "To put it in an easier way to put it, you won't be the one fighting with all of us behind your back. We predict there will be a plan of Gaea that will help her rise before you're ready, but we will _all _fight to prevent that. When she does rise, you're our final blow to shutting her down."

I nodded, but it didn't really help. "So what now?"

Sarah came in. "If you die or get kidnapped, it's the end for all of us, so we have to go to extremes to make sure that doesn't happen. You're going to be going through some serious training of Roman and Greek styles. That's why they're here."

"Plus, we can't have you unguarded on your own," The girl next to Chiron said. "Were not going to go to extremes to this, but you need to have a guard with you. You can choose since it wouldn't work well if we choose someone you didn't like." I nodded and quickly glanced at Vanessa to my left. We made eye contact, and I looked back. It was those simple moments that I enjoyed the most: being able to ask a question and get an answer through simple gestures.

"Okay," I said. "I understand the new adjustments. Is that it?"

"One more thing," Chiron held his hand. "When you leave, be sure to visit Jane in her cabin. She has some stuff for you."

I nodded and stood. My head was hurting for a fact of the oxygen lack. I pushed in the chair and joined the crowd as everyone left the room. I got outside and waited for Vanessa. She was one of the last to pop out.

"Why?" I asked.

She grinned. "You gave me another chance at life to be a hero, a chance for a _full _life. Being with you for four years is my way of paying you back.

I smiled. Knowing she would be with me made me feel a lot better, keeping in mind what a fighter she was. Than another thought came to mind. "Where's Bonnie?"

She shrugged. "Who knows? But I'm sure she's not to far around here. She should be in ear shot of your whistle sound."

We were coming up to the Hecate cabin. Outside of it, Jane and Josh were talking to each other and Josh was wailing his arms around. "…was the reason why we got caught!" he was saying. "That thing almost got us killed if it weren't for Don!"

"I know, but lesson learned that I'm only going to be doing test runs only here where it's safe. Please Josh?" she pleaded. She was trying to lean on him, but Josh saw the trickery and backed away. "Yeah, and if I do, I'll be a giant, and I don't want to be one of their brothers." Then he saw us moving towards him. "Don! Vanessa! Can you _please _tell Jane I don't like being the guini pig?"

"Ok, desperate measures," she sighed and hugged Josh. He looked down with a failed look. "Really? This is your desperate try? I can live with this. I 've been through more embarrasing things."

Apparantly, Josh didn't see the full plan. Quickly, she knelt down and pulled down his shorts, revealing red plad boxers, then came back up and binded Josh by hugging him again. Then she turned to a crowd. "HEY EVERYONE! LOOK WH-!" Josh quickly clamped her mouth with the only thing movable left: his head. He moved his cheek so it looked like it she was kissing him.

Everyone turned and saw the confusing image. They started murmuring and Jane pulled back her head back. Josh had a victory grin. "Told ya."

"Did you forget I can still do the same thing while their looking?" she asked, moving around him to keep the crowd's attention. Josh's grin quickly died and his face went red. "Ok, ok, I'll try it!"

"Swear it on the River Styx if you let me go!"

On that she let go and stood back as Josh pulled up his shorts. The people that were still watching turned and talked to themselves while walking away. "Well," I said. "Wonder whether the rumor will be Jane is so madly in love with Josh, she's already doing crazy stuff, or the secret to Josh's success with girls are his chick magnets called boxers."

"Har har," Josh grumbled. "You're not the one being begged to be turned into Tityus's brother. Anyway, whats up?"

I looked towards Jane. "Chiron told me to come here at the cabin. You know why, Jane?"

"I'd thought you'd never ask," she gloated and motioned us into her cabin. I looked in and whistled. The innings look like a set for a play in a prairie at night. The ceiling and walls were mixed with indigo and violet and white sparkles the shape of stars. There were bunks along the wall with a queen-sized bed against the furthest. In the middle of the cabin was a crystal ball glowing brightly on an end table. A nice sized glowing table with a symbol engraved in it and candles on the corners of it was sitting next to the door. On one of the bunks were a huge bag and a few letters next to it. Jane walked up to it and started untying it. "Ah, when Quinn found out you went and got his sister from the underworld, he 'convinced' almost every cabin to give you something. Chiron didn't feel easy leaving it at your cabin with the new demigods, so he left it with me."

She loosened the bag and dumped everything onto the bed. Multiple stuff came out of it: armor, shoes, a jacket, a shield, and a necklace. I looked at the stuff. "Clothes?"

Jane looked over the items as well. "For the items, the cabins that dropped them off asked me to describe them, if it's not in a letter." She picked up the breastplate armor that was strangely suddenly hard to see now. "From the Hephaestus cabin, this is what they called 'chameleon armor'. From a distance, it would make it hard for someone or thing to spot you since it blends in with your surroundings." She put that down and held up the big golden shield. "From the Athena cabin, this is a video shield. Supposedly…hold on."

She banged it a few times, then an image appeared. It was a sky overview of the camp. I could see my cabin at the arena, Chiron standing on the porch of the big house, multiple white vans on the grass with a purple banner in the horrible parking positions. "There we go. As long as the sunlight is touching it, you can see anywhere."

"Really?" I went up and took the shield from her. I zoomed in on the forest and saw a nymph smoking to kids in purple shirts. "Got to admit. That's cool."

"Plus, they said if you need to visit their library or ask questions about anything, they're there to help." Jane then picked up a blue fur coat. "This was a gift from the hunters of Artemis before they left. It's supposed to be really warm on the inside, but I would try it on later." She tossed it to Vanessa to hold and picked up a pair of white sneakers. On the sides of them, white wings suddenly sprouted and flapping. Josh, being scared the heavens out of, tripped back and scooted. We laughed as he got up. "A little warning there next time," he grumbled.

"Sorry, Josh," she giggled. "Anyway, this is obviously from the Hermes and I don't really need to describe what they do." She let go of the shoes, but instead of hitting the ground, the wings lifted it in the air and on top of the armor I was holding. Then Jane picked up a pink envelope and handed it to me. It smelt of chocolate and something I don't know and probably didn't want to know. Obviously it was from Aphrodite. In the inside was a thank you letter with a lot of lip marks and a silver necklace with a ruby in stoned. "They also said if you need any advice, let them know," Jane informed me. "The rest of the letters are the same thing, but there's one more thing I want you to know about. May I see the necklace?"

I gripped the necklace and tossed it to her. "Now, if it had a magic effect, what would it be?"

I lifted my eyes. "I guess a inner radar of monsters or something."

Jane turned and grinned. "That's nice, but you're not getting it. I can't go that far. But I can do this…"

She put the necklace on the table with candles and put here hands on the table. A pinkish light went through the engravings of the table and ne necklace glowed. After ten seconds, it died and Jane looked tired. She took the necklace and gave it to me, The ruby in the middle was now glowing multiple colors. "Now you have a mood charm," she said. "Usually for my camp shop, people have to pay for enchantments, but for you three, it could be favors."

Vanessa smiled. "Thanks, Jane. I'm glad we met."

She nodded and yawned. "Now if you excuse me, that took a lot out of me, so I need my beauty sleep right now."

She motioned us out of the cabin and was about to close the door until she remembered something. "Oh, and the Ares cabin also said that if you have a problem with someone, talk to them. They'll 'fix it.'" With that, she closed the door. I looked down at all the stuff I got. "Wow. I should be doing this more often."

"Don't abuse the hero gifts," she warned. "But think positively. You're going to fight Gaea and you nee to be ready. Ready to start training?"

I looked at her surprised. "Already?"

**Aaaaannnnnnddddd… CUT! That's the end of Bok One. I'm going to take a long break and think more upon my next story, but I have most of the quirks worked out. Thank you viewers for viewing! :D I will now give you the book title and summary of the sequel.**

**Coming whenever I feel like it**

**Book Two:**

**Reconnaissance of Time**

(Sequel to 'Rise of the Suns') The mysterious girl who sounds like Annabeth and call's Gaea 'mom'had a pretty suitable life. Leading and fighting for Gaea with a promised future of heroism and positive fame, she had everything she ever dreamed. Suddenly, disaster strikes, and she is forced to pair up with the 'devil' (Don) to get back to their time period. All the while, she reveals secrets about her past of why she sounds like Annabeth and others that should have stayed hidden in time. Don's POV.

**Thank you!-and stayed tune! :D READ AND REVIEW!-Flappy741**


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